In early Montessori Geography curriculum, Colored Continent Globe (buy here) is the next globe to introduce to a child after the Sandpaper Globe (buy here). Once the child is able to complete the 3🅿️🌠 Three Period Lesson with a Sandpaper globe (read a presentation here), it is time to move on to the Colored Globe presentation.

STEP 1: Transition from the Sandpaper globe (Continents vs. Oceans):

Show both: the Sandpaper and the Colored globe to a child. Point to the differences in color and texture. Focus on the Colored globe: isolate with both hands just one part (for example a continent: e.g. Europe) and present a 3🅿️🌠 Three Period Lesson:

• Period 1: THIS IS -"This piece of red land is called a continent… This water has a name – it is called an ocean. We have continents and we have oceans.”
• Period 2: SHOW ME - “Show me a continent/ocean … etc.”
• Period 3: WHAT IS THIS? 

STEP 2: Colored Continent Globe (Introduction):

The Colored (Painted) Continent globe is the round physical globe with protruding continents, painted in different colors. This globe does not feel rough as the Sandpaper globe does, thus being less concrete in nature ~ more an abstraction of Sandpaper globe where continents are differentiated by raised sandpaper texture, stimulating predominantly child's tactile senses. The Colored Continent globe, on the other hand, while still discernible to a child’s tactile sense through protruding continents, primarily stimulates child’s visual sense (of color) rather than tactile of sandpaper.  

Presentation: on the Continent Globe, feel around all the continents with your index and middle fingers, starting with the continent you live on. As you feel around each protruding continent you may refer to its size or color, but the naming at this point is coincidental. Take the globe out of the stand to feel Antarctica. Invite the child to feel all the continents, which are raised. Do a brief 3🅿️🌠 Three Period Lesson (read more here). Let the child show you “ a large continent, a small continent, red continent, our continent, a continent that is very cold … etc”  Stop at the 2nd Period.

STEP 3: Colored Continent Globe (learning the names of the continents):

During this step, a child will learn his place on Earth: a continent s/he lives on. You would explain to a child that a Globe is a sphere, a round ball, that represents our Planet we live on ~ the Planet Earth. Each continent is color-coded in Montessori Geography, and a Continent Song makes it really easy and fun for a toddler to learn the names and positioning of the continents on the globe.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/211185663

🎤 “North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa. Don’t forget Australia and please don't forget Antarctica.” 

In this video, Adrian is singing the "Continent Song" at 29 months. This song is very catchy, and it helped him learn the names of the continents and their positioning on the globe at a very early age. 

Also, in Montessori geography, continents are color-coded to stimulate the child visually. Later when, for example, animals of a particular continent are studied, the materials are laminated on the corresponding color of that continent to facilitate continent color association. Such continent color-coding remains consistent throughout the entire Montessori education. 

1. North America – orange
2. South America – pink
3. Europe-red
4. Asia- yellow
5. Africa- green
6. Australia – brown
7. Antarctica – white

I realize that there are many different ways a child can memorize the continents with a song. Does your child use a song to memorize continents? 

For more geography lessons, see here "Learning 🌊 Oceans with a 🎶 Song at 33 months (Early Montessori 🌏 Geography)."

Also, see "World Continent Puzzle Map" post here, which explains how you would transition from the Earth as a sphere to the way cartographers put Earth on a flat map.