MapScaping is a website which offers free printable folding paper globes. A lot of people are fascinated by maps and it can also be a great way for kids to learn about the world map. Parents or even teachers can take this up as a project or activity for their kids or students.
MapScaping website was started by its owners out of love for natural landscapes and maps. As they say maps are magical because they represent our past, present and maybe a hint of the future. The maps they design are highly detailed based on elevation data. You can read more about how these maps are designed on the about page of this website, if you are interested to know how the designing works.
The link to this website can be found at the end of this article. When you land on this website you will see a screen like the one shown in the screenshot below.
You can see on this page that a lot of world globe map pictures are given on the page. In full screen view you will see two maps side by side and when you scroll down the website you will see more such printable globes. The above view is shown when you have the browser window minimized to a custom size, then it shown one printable globe at a time and you will have to scroll down the page to see more options.
These globe pictures are designed to be printed on A3 size paper. You can print them on A4 size as well, but they come out better if you print them on A3 size. A3 size is recommended as the bigger size is easier to fold, specially with more complicated globe designs.
To download a globe, click on its image. As soon as you click the globe will open up in PDF format on the page in full screen view. From this page you can use the download icon to save the globe on your computer in PDF format. Once downloaded you can easily get it printed.
Now you are ready for your fun family project. Involve your kids and it can be a great fun activity for everyone. First of all you need to cut along the edges. Remove all the white spaces around the given globe picture. Once you have done that your globe cut out will look like the image below.
Now you need to fold the pink portion backwards. Like shown in the image below.
Once done, you will notice black dotted lines on the map. These are the fold lines. Now you have to fold through all the black lines. Once done, apply glue to the pink portions that we folded in the previous step. Now each pink flap need to be pasted to a side in the direction of its fold. All the pink flaps will connect the printed cutout and will become a folded globe model. This will look like the screenshot below.
The cutout turns into a beautiful looking globe. It is definitely a fun activity for kids and can even be carried out for students by teachers.
Overview:
MapScaping offers a great variety of globes to be printed, which can then be folded into paper globes as shown in the screenshot above. Parents and teachers can take this activity up with their kids. The graphics on these folding paper globes are made from real topographic data. This will be a creative project where the kids will also learn a lot about world Geography and explore the earth.
Check out MapScaping website here.
