Tag Archives: DIY map puzzles

Pinned it and Did It

DIY Map Puzzles – Pinned it and Did it

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I saw this pin pop up on www.pinterest.com, and it was an ah-hah moment.

http://pinterest.com/pin/234961305530962428/Pinned Image

You’ll find the source of the idea and beautiful picture here:  http://www.natalme.com/locker-front-magnet-board/

We have been using Story of the World – Middle Ages by Susan Wise Bauer for history with Eden (7), Andres (9) and Leah (11), and each chapter has a mapping activity.  I thought this would be a great way to review and reinforce our map work.

First we followed the directions to complete our map.

Next we completely colored the map for aesthetics.

Andres laminated his map, cut it into six pieces, put magnets on the back of each piece, and put it back together on our refrigerator.

DSC08629

Eden mounted her map on construction paper, cut it up into pieces and sent it to her grandmother who loves maps.

Leah cut her map into six pieces and glued it back together again onto construction paper.

Fun!

This is a great excuse to give you a link to one of my all-time favorite websites, www.owlandmouse.com.  You’ll find free printable outline maps of just about anywhere here, and you can print them any size you want.  This site prints the maps out on as many sheets of paper as you need for the size of map you select.  Then you lay out all the sheets, tape them together, and wallah, you have a huge, wall-sized map, a one-page map, or any size in between.

One of the best homeschool projects we ever did was we printed off a huge world map from this site, put it together on our wall, colored in all the water blue and then colored the countries as we read about them in our studies or encountered them in life.  Earthquake in Japan?  We found Japan on our map and colored it in.  New Sunday school teacher from Egypt?  We found Egypt on our map and colored it in.  Book about China?  We found China on our map and colored it in.

Incidentally, you’ll also find free interactive on-line map games on www.owlandmouse.com for every region of the world.  Take a look, take a trip – just don’t forget to write!

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