How to Make a Paper Mache Map

Being a little artsy myself, it is always a pleasure to incorporate anything crafty in our home school.  I try to provide auditory, visual and tactile learning experiences and large projects like this are perfect.  My goal here was to create a huge paper mache map of Great Britain.  As it was to be specifically used for our Anglo Saxon and Viking studies as well as Middle Ages, I wanted it to include the countries the two former cultures migrated from (Norway, Sweden, Germany, Denmark) as well as the countries the Vikings explored (Newfoundland, Iceland and Greenland).  The idea was that the children would actively build these countries and therefore NEVER forget where they were.  I had decided to build some of the things we had learnt about in our Anglo Saxon  lessons: Offa’s Dyke, Sutton Hoo Burial and an Anglo Saxon village.  I also included a boat to show the direction of migration.  Once we study the Vikings we will choose different land marks and subjects to focus on and build.

I already had a large piece of card tucked away and I sent off for some papier mache powder.    Obviously it would have been much less expensive to have just used newspaper but I wanted the children to try something new and we’ve already done loads of  newspaper papier mache.

First we did an outline of Britain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland (America).   The children marked out all the countries and outlined the map with black. (only showing Britain- the map really is huge!):

The children putting the plaster paper mache around the outline:

The final papier mache outline:

After painting all the water:

And a closer view:

This was painted in readiness for ‘decorating’ with Anglo Saxon bits and pieces.  So much fun :

So much fun, for so little money!

To see how we used this map to learn about the Anglo Saxons click on the picture below: