Learning about the Continents, Equator, and Oceans

This is a neat little project for the 2nd Grade kids and above to do to get better acquainted with geography as well as to decorate the classroom.  They can also be used later as Christmas ornaments :).

Materials:

• old or new blue wrapping tissue paper cut into square pieces
• glue stick
• tape
• scissors
• 4" smoothfoam or styrofoam ball (Joann's or Michaels)
• Map Picture (http://kids.britannica.com/comptons/art-166560/Earths-seven-continents-are-Asia-Africa-North-America-South-America?&articleTypeId=31)

• White Ribbon for hanging
• Glue Gun
• Ball Point Pen

 Prep Work:

• The foam balls are $4.49 for a two pack of the 4" Smoothfoam balls at JoAnne's.  You can use the 50% off a regular priced item coupon.  The room mom can assign half the parents to pick up the foam balls.  Have each parent contribute $1.50 to the classroom for the project.  This will cover the foam ball, tissue paper, and ribbon cost.  
• Make sure you cut enough of the blue tissue paper into 3x3 or 4x4 square pieces.  The kids will be using the pieces to glue stick to their foam ball.
• Print out enough copies of the map for each student.  Make 2 copies per student.  Cut out the outline of the 7 continents.  If there are a lot of students in the one classroom, have a few parents help with cutting out the continents by providing them with the color photo copies.
• Heat up the glue gun and go ahead and attach/glue each side of the white ribbon to the foam ball.  That way it will be ready for hanging once the kids are done with the project.

Project Time:

1. Give each student a foam ball with the ribbon attached to it and a printout of the map.
2. Put a stack of the cut out blue tissue squares for each table to use.
3. Have each student get his/her glue stick, tape, and ball point pen.
4. By applying the glue stick on the foam ball and attaching the blue tissue paper square pieces , the students will cover the ball.  This is the water for their globe.
5. Once the globe is covered with blue tissue paper, each student will tape the continent cutouts to their globe in their proper locations.
6. Once they are finished taping the continents to their globe, they can write the following onto their globe using the ball point pen.
1. Equator
2. Atlantic Ocean
3. Pacific Ocean
4. Indian Ocean
5. Arctic Ocean