Montessori Monday: World Map with Animals

This is my world map set up. The small animal figures came from a animal book set Koko's grandpa bought her in Korea. This was before I learned about PVC in many plastic toys. Koko loves animals and so she often wants to know what they eat and where they live so I have to make a major miniature animal purchase so we have a few decent amount of animals in each continent, but I am not sure what exactly to buy.

I did pick up a few Anamalz wooden toys as well, but they're big. And though I love Hotziger's animals they are big as well. I suppose if I made a large fabric map like this wonderful Montessori mama did, size wouldn't be a problem.

Wooden animal toys are so beautiful. Check our Nova Natural's collection! I also like Wild Apple's collections. I think the arks are more cost-efficient in the long run. I know what you're thinking. Wooden animal toys are so expensive. Sigh.

Another cheap alternative is to have my husband draw and cut out some animals from cardstock. It loses the 3D component, but it's so much cheaper and it's still made with love.

I also have to make continent folders. I really love how Shannon did hers! There's so much I need to do. A friend gifted us with a subscription of Your Big Backyard a while back so I think I'm be cutting up some pictures for the folders. Mommyme also has a great idea to use National Geographic. If you have any spare National Geographic magazines, let me know.

By the way, is anyone familiar with these continent songs? I only know the ones for Asia, North and South America, and Africa. My Montessori teacher friend learned these from Sri Lanka but she forgot the ones for the rest of the continents.



And don't forget to check out Shannon's Montessori Monday!