Globe in Montessori Classroom; Geographical Apparatus

In Montessori schools, children are exposed to a whole range of geography materials including puzzle maps and globes. A four or five-year-old is likely to be familiar with the Sandpaper Globe of Land and Water and the Coloured Continents Globe. A Globe is an introductory geography material from the Sensorial Curriculum.

This material introduces the child to the concept of the globe as a representation of earth, and clearly defines the concepts of land and water.

Outstanding features of the Sandpaper Globe are the blue water and elevated land formations with a sandy texture.

The Sandpaper Globe prepares children for the second Montessori globe, the Coloured Globe, which indicates the different continents of the world in different colours.

Purpose

The main purpose of the Sandpaper Globe is to introduce children to the concepts of land and water.

From this lesson, the child gets a sense of the shape of the world, and is also able to visualise the distribution of land and water over the earth.

Once understood, these concepts are built upon by introducing the Coloured Globe to the child.