Just a peek of what I have been up to...our Geography Center

OK my batteries died whilst trying to get my photo shoot in...OI.  But this is a sliver of what I have been spending my time on.  This is my Geography Center (the display board type-like my science center one).  I am using some Home School in the Woods Olde World maps (reviewing this-so look for that info in a couple weeks), and various other goodies. I also ran out of Velcro (I know-I know-that is completely unacceptable!) and altho I pretty much have the other flap thought out and done-I cannot show it b/cuz I need that Velcro to finish it up to make it all perty like.  The center is sorta thought out but not quite....I think as I go along with these projects....so it is empty at the moment.

Imagine all the stuff completed on this side (just pretend now...) the continents that are on the top map are actually Velcro'd to the map-they will get placed on that green card (once I have that wonderful Velcro in my possession) for storage.  The oceans one is almost done-I forgot I needed two Pacific Ocean cards-oops.  The idea with this main map is, that the student will see the world position of whatever it is we are focusing on. So when we come to studying oceans/continents-all they have to do is glance up to see its location in the world.

Then the 2 pockets below that, have a Velcro dot on them so that I can change out the labels of what it is I am wanting them to find.  Then the focus point is a map that shows what it is we are zeroing in on.  Right now it is the Pacific Ocean.  Then the child will take their sheet (that I put in their workbox on a clip board, or will have it by the display-depending on my mood) and fill in the info I want them to (in this case for my 2nd grader-it is just "North Pacific" and "South Pacific", but for my teen-she will have to note all the little seas and countries found within the map area).

The little blue card with the fish-well that is a fun one I made to fill in the blank spot below the focus map (I will explain that reason in another post) in which I took a part of a notebooking page of HSintheW's map collection, and put teeny tiny Velcro spots for the fish to go (there are 2 b/cuz the Pacific is in two spots on that map-but usually there is only a need for 1) which have the Velcro (big surprise heh?) on their back sides-so the child will put a fish on the ocean we are discussing...when we get to the continents-I have turtle erasers (found at the local Dollar Tree in the school section-in a container with a bunch of erasers) to place on the continent we're focusing on.

All of this is Velcro'd for a reason-so that I can switch up the type of study we are doing-
right now it is oceans and continents
next time around it will most likely be the states-so I need to be able to have different labels when necessary and move the position of the maps (some are vertical)
and so forth.

The idea here is to make this very versatile so I get the most use out of one of these display boards-no need to buy a new one for every type of Geography study.  I didn't that with the Space one-since we'll be studying it for a loooonnnngg time-and will cycle back to it when he is older...so I was not  as concerned with that issue for that application.  But the geography center is a different story-I am not lingering too long over any one subject-so I need it to be interchangeable with not much time betwixt subjects of focus.

Well, once the ole Velcro issue is resolved, the middle section has stuff on it, and I have the right side completed-I will post the whole enchilada for you-just wanted to tease ya and let you know that I have not fallen off the face of the earth-and that I am having a few moments of creativity.