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Me on the Map Geography Nesting Cans

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Have you ever read the book Me on the Map by Joan Sweeny?  It’s a favorite of mine.  To go along with that book, I want to share a fun geography nesting cans project.  You will LOVE these! They are the perfect way to help kids begin to grasp geography concepts.

I started a series of posts recently called Geography Projects from A to Z that goes along with the book Geography from A to Z by Jack Knowlton.   So far we have done Atoll & Archipelago as well as Beach & Bay. Check them out- they were really fun projects.

Geography nesting cansgeography projectsgeography projects

How to Make Me On the Map Nesting Cans

This month we decided to do a geography project that is a little different but I still thought it went along well with the series.  It was a blast and the kids really enjoyed it.  We made Geography Nesting Cans based on the book Me on the Map by Joan Sweeny. If you haven’t seen this book, or the others in the series, I highly recommend looking into them!  They are so much fun & teach a lot in a fun way.

me on the map project

Geography Nesting Cans with Me on the Map

Me on the Map talks about all of the different places we live.  It starts with earth, then shows continents, countries, states, cities, streets, house and then our own room.  To represent this we made cans representing them.
geography project
Each can we covered with a paper that the kids colored to show where they live. We taped them on with packing tape and put some printed scrapbook papers behind them to cover the rest of the can.
 Geography nesting cans project

The largest can we used was a formula can and showed our earth. Then we used cans that got smaller in diameter and fit inside of one another. Finally they drew a map of their room and put it inside the can of their house.

 

geography project

We found where we lived on various maps, too.  We looked at a world map and a globe to find our continent and country.  Then we looked at a country map to find our state.  To find out city maps we looked at Google Maps- then we could even see our houses on the map!
 geography lesson for kids- me on the map
Pin this Geography Nesting Can project to save it for later!
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Comments

  3. Lynn Nash says

    This is a great idea! I am forever trying to explain to my youngest son that France is not in our state of PA! This will do the trick. Thanks for sharing at Creative Learning.

    Reply

  4. Gwen T says

    That can idea is a really good one – it would help one of mine who thinks it’s confusing that we live in Texas and also the USA! I love making geography real to my kids. I got good grades in school, but some things like geography never sunk in until I started homeschooling! 🙂

    Reply

  5. Michelle says

    What a clever idea! I wish we hadn’t already done the traditional paper version of this craft this year so we could do this one! Great idea to use Google Maps, too!

    Reply

  7. Ticia says

    I love this book, and I love the hands on aspect of this. I’ve always taught this using a layered book for them to make, but I like the stacking cans.

    Reply

  14. Beth Gorden says

    Love the nesting cans to teach geography – so clever!

    Thanks for linking up to TGIF! Hope to see you linked up again later today! Have a great weekend,
    Beth =-)

    Reply

  16. Anna says

    Wow, this is such a genius way to teach basic geography. Definitely pinning this for the future! Just have to start saving those cans!

    Reply

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