I am super excited to share this post with you! My theme for Maps/World Study started off great, but ended up morphing into something even better than I imagined when I stumbled across a new blog. Get ready for preschool cuteness!
To start off the post: Last Friday I spent my prep day getting ready for the Around The World: Map Week theme at my preschool. I had already set up our centers in my mind and I knew they would be extra fun for the kids...encouraging them to travel around the world to different places! Over the past three years I have been collecting the TOOB sets available at many toy and craft stores (I get mine at Michaels because I get a teacher discount and I can always find a 20%-50% off coupon to use on top of that!). So, I centered my Center Activitys/Work Stations this week around some of my TOOB sets.
To start off the post: Last Friday I spent my prep day getting ready for the Around The World: Map Week theme at my preschool. I had already set up our centers in my mind and I knew they would be extra fun for the kids...encouraging them to travel around the world to different places! Over the past three years I have been collecting the TOOB sets available at many toy and craft stores (I get mine at Michaels because I get a teacher discount and I can always find a 20%-50% off coupon to use on top of that!). So, I centered my Center Activitys/Work Stations this week around some of my TOOB sets.
Around The World: Centers/Work Stations
How I set up my main Centers Room
I made these signs out of poster board and wrote a little Welcome Phrase at the top (many of my kids can read...or are word blending so this is a great challenge for them!). I also put a map of the location on there for them to see and explore. I'll explain each table below :)
The Arctic
I had the Arctic TOOB set, so I wanted to create a center where the kids could visit The Arctic! Here is a quick photo of the awesome things in the Arctic TOOB.
To create the scene I turned a jumbo pizza box lid into the base. It was the perfect size for my table. I just covered it in white butcher paper I had. I put in a few things for the kids to create a landscape (they are all movable) including: Two sparkle foam pages, a bunch of cotton-ball snow, and a round mirror for "ice".
North America's Forests
I also had a TOOB set of the Animals of North America. I created a Forest Area for North America featuring these animals. On the table sign I found a great map that had the large forests in "green" on a map of North America.
To set it up I put a tray out with moss and pieces of wood...and some extra felt I had laying around that resembles dirt. I also set out our TOOB Trees...which is my favorite to use. I use the trees all the time! I also had some toy rocks in my dino bin from last week.
Ancient Egypt
This TOOB set is awesome. I had purchased it just for this week (along with the World Monuments set). I put it out with some sand and some metal containers for them to use for digging and pouring.
The Oceans
At the large table in my school I set up a World Ocean area. I used blue water beads in one tub with the Oceans TOOB set I had from Underwater Week last year. I have been wanting to try water beads for a while now and they are better than I could have hoped. I even want to sit and play with them!
I also put out a shell sensory tray to explore.
And Then This Happened...
After I had this all set up...I realized I wished that I had a TOOB set of people from around the world. I didn't know if they made that. So I googled it (and found that they do not, sadly). But, somehow, in my search results I stumbled across THIS POST from Imagine Our Life. This was a new blog to me, and it is the most lovely blog ever. Full of beautiful ideas. You'll have to visit the page, but in short: It connects the TOOB sets I had been using to a World Map hand-sewn from felt! Amazing!! So, I decided I had to try it. It was a long weekend with Veteran's Day...so I hit the craft store again and set out sewing my own felt map using her patterns. She is wonderful and gives them to readers for free, although I totally plan to send something from her Son's wish list as a nice Thank You :)
Her patterns are very easy to follow. These are my continents...I am not a skilled seamstress and I was able to do it! I made a few adjustments to save time (like sewing the velcro on with my sewing machine)...but otherwise followed her plans. I decided to go with just the continents and wall map for this week...and to use the figures for my centers as I had created them. Next week we will enjoy some of her activities and I'll have the felt animals and world monuments done to add to the felt map!
This was the most amazing "stumble-upon" blog post. Here is my map, complete with her ocean and continent cards ready for the kids at my preschool!
They LOVED it.
(and just to show you....here are the animals, that match the TOOB sets, for South America that I made. Yes, it is time consuming, but totally possible to make them. It seemed daunting at first, but her patterns are so wonderful I am sure anyone who loves to craft would enjoy the challenge!).