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Welcome to our 2nd week of #playfulpreschool (follow this hashtag on social media!) where we bring you some hands on learning for your little preschooler!
This weeks theme is family and heritage, also be sure to check at the bottom of this post for all the links to more ideas on this theme from my fabulous blogging friends who are also a part of this group!
This weeks theme took a while to come up with an idea then finally I decided to make it into a little geography lesson. This works best if you have an actual map map but a printable from Printable Word Map will do in a pinch! They also have the states and various other maps if your family is not as widespread as mine!
The first thing I did was download a world map then copy some family photos and cut out the faces. My 5 year old rather enjoyed coloring in the world and marveling at the amount of sea there was around the continents. Like in the last Ice Age movie! hehe
After some coloring in we talking about family members and where they were in the world. Since we live rather far from our families I often show the kids pictures of grandparents as well as aunts and uncles mostly via facebook.
We then spread the pictures out to their various continents. My parents who live in South Africa (where we are from) are called Granny and Grandpa, my husbands parents also South African have immigrated to Greece and like to be called Yiayia and Pappou. We also have some cousins in Australia!
I also cut a few faces out for our own family for him to add to South America (where we currently live).
This activity is also a great introduction for the younger ones who are watching their older sibling learning. In the below pic you can see my 5 year old’s younger brother and sister showing great interest in what he is doing. My 5 year old looks rather in thought in this pic too!
Of course more coloring in had to be done as coloring in is never done! 😀
Do take a look at last weeks apple theme and don’t forget to follow us by email to stay up to date with our ideas!
Pin this preschool lesson for later!
Plan your Family Theme Preschool Activities with these ideas from the Playful Preschool Education Team!
Family Theme Learning Activities: Reading – Writing – Cooking – Sensory – Art – Math
Bookmaking for a Preschool Family Theme from Fun A Day
Preschool Writing Activity: Letters to Family from Mom Inspired Life
Cooking with Kids: Family Recipe Books from Growing Book By Book
Our Family Tree: Sorting Family Members from Still Playing School
Family Themed Sensory Bin from Little Bins for Little Hands
Tips for Using Skype to Connect with Family from The Educators’ Spin On It
Family Portraits from Rainy Day Mum
Family Counting from Tiny Tots Adventures
Jamaican Games for Fine and Gross Motor Skills from Learning 2 Walk
Family Footprints from Capri +3
We would like to extend an invitation to join in our Live Google+ Hangout Tonight at 9:00 where we highlight Family Theme Preschool Activities for parents, teachers, and caregivers.
Carrie says
What a great idea!! We look at maps to see where family lives, but haven’t done it with pictures. My daughter however does have a collage frame picture of family members in her room. We first hung it by her crib so the faces of family farther away would always be familiar to her. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
the preschool toolbox says
What a great way to integrate geography and map skills into the Family Theme! Our family is located mainly in the US. We should BORROW family from you!:) Thanks for a great suggestion and post!
Mary Catherine says
I love how you made a geography lesson so meaningful!
Devany says
I LOVE this! We also have family from all over the world so we could definitely adapt this to wear everyone was born!
Jodie @ Growing Book by Book says
My son is beginning to show an interest in maps so this will be a great activity for us. Thank you!
Danielle says
We have family in different states in the US and a bunch in Germany and Serbia, so this would be a great activity for us. I am definitely going to do this!
Theresa says
Our children love maps and family photos. Love it! We will have to give this a try.
Sarah says
This is inspiring for me to gat a map of the USA and try it out. We don’t have family in lots of states but enough to do this activity!
Natasha says
We did something like this to pin point our family. I think the talks diring these moments are great. Plus coloring is just plain fun.
Cerys from Rainy Day Mum says
Love this idea – we have family in UK, USA and close friends living in the Middle East and Thialand the kids would love looking at the maps
Amanda says
Ooh, this would be fun to do with our family. We have some in Minnesota, California, and Russia!