Montessori Geography Folders

Back when I was preparing geography lessons and materials for Mavi years ago, I read the importance of Geography Folders.  These are basically folders filled with pictures from your home country or continent and from other continents as well.  The pictures should show the people engaging in daily life activities, show landmarks, food, animals, children, homes, transportation and villages if any.  I think these Geography Folders are best for your continent study because it will introduce your child to other races, culture, places, and traditions.

I know that the best thing for continent and cultural study is still an actual experience of travelling.  Nothing beats experiencing long flights, layover in airports, seeing other people of different races, hearing different languages, eating exotic foods, experiencing different cultures and climates, seeing different structures etc.  We are thankful in a way that we get to travel yearly to Asia or United States to visit our families.  These experiences has accelerated the boys’ knowledge in maps, flags and topographies and gave birth to their interest in learning other cultures and religions.

The photos in the Geography Folder supports these knowledge and interest.  Take for example, my early “Geography Folder” for Asia looks like this:

I printed these pictures and made Mavi assemble the folder to look like an album so we can explore it anytime.  As you can see, we added a description for each of the photos.

Then these Geography Folders evolved into real photos of our travel kept in a folder.  The boys can immediately relate to these photos because they are in them.  And the miniature landmarks figures (Safari Ltd Around the World TOOB and Safari Ltd World Landmarks TOOB) that we own also helped in learning about places.

But a few years ago, I decided to come up with a new kind of Geography Folder that suits both my older child and my preschooler.  First, I created our Nutshell Series which highlights important facts and information about each continent.  Here’s a sample of our Africa fact cards from Africa in a Nutshell.  The cards are perfect for my older child to read, and are great companions in travelling.

For more information about our Nutshell series, you can click any of the images below.

Then for Vito, his Geography Folder is more of the traditional one, pictures with short descriptions.  But I assembled the pictures into a photo album type but of course, we can still detach the photos from the binder if needed.  NOTE: THESE PHOTOS ARE NOT PART OF THE NUTSHELL SERIES, YOU CAN BUY THESE IN THE SHOP. JUST CLICK THE IMAGES BELOW

• Geography Folders MEGA BUNDLE PACK
• EUROPE Montessori Geography Folder
• AUSTRALIA/OCEANIA Montessori Geography Folder
• ASIA Montessori Geography Folder
• AFRICA Montessori Geography Folder
• South America Montessori Geography Folder
• North America Montessori Geography Folder

We used the Geography Folders with maps.  For Vito I would discuss one photo at a time, and point it to the map or to the puzzle piece if we are using the Montessori continent map puzzle (check my post on World Map Jigsaw Puzzle Recommendations).  With Mavi, we’re using puzzle pieces of countries from our Asia or Europe Montessori maps.  There are times that I would also use objects that go along with the photo from either our (1)  landmark figures from our Safari Toob collection, and (2) souvenir items.  Check our Asia for Preschoolers post to see how we put these materials into action.

And that’s about it!  Happy learning!

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This post is part of the 12 Months More of Montessori which is hosted by Natural Beach Living and The Natural Homeschool.

Amazing blogs participating in the 12 Months More of Montessori that you should visit:

20+ Ways to Teach Montessori Geography Kids Will Love | Natural Beach Living

North America for Kids - Printable Geography 3-Part Cards | The Natural Homeschool

The Ultimate Guide to Montessori-Inspired Geography Activities for Preschoolers | Living Montessori Now

Montessori Animals and Continents with Printable | Mama’s Happy Hive

Our Favorite Geography DIYs | The Kavanaugh Report

Montessori Geography Folders | The Pinay Homeschooler

Introduction to Russia Printables | Welcome to Mommyhood

Montessori Primary Geography Checklist | Sugar, Spice & Glitter