Introducing the World

This week, I started introducing the concept of continents. Mario (5) learned a song last semester about seven days in the week, so remembering that there are seven continents seems to be simple for him. Just by chance, it happened that one of the books we got from the library was a book with maps from around the world. The first section just had lots of discussion about maps and a view of different maps. Then the rest of the sections were divided into continents -- perfect! So our social studies this unit is going like this.

Day 1 -- Introducing the World
-- look at a large world map (we have one up in our play room); discuss how the earth is divided into seven continents
-- look at different kinds of maps; talk about the different things a map can show (political divisions, population, geographic markings, etc.)

Day 2 -- Introducing Asia
-- Look at the section on Asia in National Geographic's Student Atlas of the World (checked out from the library)
-- Look at the section on Asia in What Every Kindergartener Needs to Know
-- Read a story that originates in Asia either from WEKNTK or from the library

Day 3 -- Introducing Europe
(Follow pattern from Day 2 and continue that through Day 7.)

Day 4 -- Introducing Africa

Day 5 -- Introducing Australia

Day 6 -- Introducing South America

Day 7 -- Introducing North America
(I purposefully ended with North America. In The Well-Trained Mind, the authors suggest that early focus on the familiar, the local, the present encourages ethnocentrism. My taking this approach was a simple way to start with the unfamiliar to make it more familiar and then end with the local.)

Day 8 -- Review the World
-- Look at a globe and try to find the different continents. Talk about where they are in relation to each other and some things that are unique about them.