BW is reviewing continents. To help this process and to solidify reading the face of an analog clock, BW received a very complicated lesson – the lesson of Time Zones.
This lesson is presented with a discussion of the various continents and how the earth rotates around so part of the sphere faces the sun at any given time. The sun’s light advances across the earth in a logical paced manner.
The clocks are laid out with the hour hand facing up and the day and night strips are placed beside the map. Beginning with the Eastern Time Zone, we began with the setting of the sun. (He picked day or night.) Our “sun” sets at 6:00 PM. We located the 6:00 clock face and placed it at the top of our map and our black ribbon down across the time zone. We continued by speaking about what he would be doing then.
We continued to advance across the Atlantic ocean and across Asia. BW worked hard to find the times and the zones.
A Montessori Educator note: I deviated from the traditional style by cutting the clocks into circles to make the child focus on that hour hand. My training class discovered that the one inch wide ribbons work very well because the continents can still be seen through the sheer fabric. We used pieces of duck tape (black and white) to keep the ends from fraying. The storage is a dream compared to the traditional stripes of poster board.
The Inclusive Atrium 