Today we finished reviewing ocean currents, one of the elements that determines the climate of a location. They colored the ocean currents sheet from The Modern Montessori Guide (all part of her Imaginary Island curriculum).
The kids then had two blank world maps. Looking back at their painted islands and the scales of the island and world maps, they plotted their island on each of the world maps.
Then, the kids pulled out the ocean current and wind pattern maps they’d made, plus some more detailed current and wind maps for reference. On one map they drew in the wind patterns that affect their island, and wrote a sentence describing how that wind pattern might alter the temperature of the island. On the other they drew in an labeled ocean currents affecting their island, and wrote a sentence detailing that.
It took me a long time to find a world map I liked – here’s the one we used.
Next week they’ll use all this information to determine the climate of their island.