Beginning in Montessori daycare, hands-on map activities like puzzles are used to help children develop critical thinking and fine motor skills. As their skills increase, so will the method and complexity of their map activities. Here are some awesome play-based activity ideas that entertain and inform young minds.
Learning Compass Points
Learning what directional names mean is a great way to introduce daycare children to maps. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, and North is left when you are facing the rising sun or facing west as it sets. With that information, children are ready to begin to learn the logical method of placing the world in terms that can be given to others.
Drawing Maps
Once daycare students have a way to show how things are oriented, they can draw maps of their room, the classroom, and work up to drawing the neighborhood and then the world. Mapping is a whole new way to communicate, and children enjoy drawing maps of anything and everything.
Treasure Hunts
As daycare children are learning to grasp the meaning of maps, they can facilitate the process by playing treasure hunt games. One student makes a map leading to a secret object, and another is tasked with following the map to discover what the object is. Directions should be simple, such as “One step north and 2 steps to the east” or “go straight to the table, then turn left and take 4 steps,” etc.
Where Things Come From
By the time children have grasped the concept of following a map to the hidden treasure, they are ready to discover how maps can show them where things come from. Polar bears live in the arctic north, for example, and penguins are only found in the southern half of the world. Learning where their favorite foods originated, where popular animals are native to, and locations of different cultural regions are enjoyable lessons. As their map skills increase, play games like stopping a spinning globe and finding out what is native to the area under their finger.
Map activities give daycare children practical skills that will help them navigate their world and earn about foreign lands. They encourage critical thinking, promote the development of fine motor skills, and combine easily with language, math, and geography topics.
