The Sandpaper Globe
Materials: A world globe about 5” – 6” in diameter: the land areas are covered with sandpaper and the water surfaces are painted blue
Purposes:
To prepare the child for later study in physical geography
To offer the child a representation of the shape of the earth
Age: 3 ½ – 4 ½
Preparation: The child has worked with tactile materials and has experience with the Land and Water Forms
Presentation:
Invite the child for a lesson on the Sandpaper Globe and sensitize the fingers with the sensitizing activity.
Hold the globe by the base with one hand while the other supports the globe and bring it to the table.
Explain what a globe is.
Introduce the term “land surface” and touch one. Do the same for “water surface”.
Invite the child to feel a land surface and then a water surface. Let the child feel.
Offer a three-period lesson.
When complete, point to where the child lives and encourage repetition.
Control of Error: None
Language:
Land surface and water surface
Following Exercises: None
Memory Games: None
Pedagogical Notes:
We do not give the names of the bodies of land and water at this time, this is simply an introduction.
“They loved the globe so much that it became the most popular feature of the room. The child’s mind between three and six can not only see by intelligence the relations between things, but it has the higher power still of mentally imagining those things that are not directly visible.” Montessori, The Absorbent Mind, p. 176