Salt Dough Maps

This was an extreme task! In previous years my school sent this home for a take home project. This year we decided to create them at school. The kids really enjoyed this, and they learned so much in the process of making them.
We had students make the dough at home and bring it to school to create.

YOU WILL NEED:

1  salt

2 cups of flour

¾ cup of water

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a large bowl mix salt and flour together.
2. Gradually stir in water. Mix well until it forms a doughy consistency. ** it is VERY important not to add too much water!! Gradually add it in, even if you don't use all the water, it is better. If the dough is not the consistency of rollout sugar cookies, it is too wet! add more flour!

Turn the dough and kneed with your hands until smooth and combine.

THe purpose of this project was for students to learn the landforms, regions and locations in the state of Texas. Instead of taking notes, drawing maps and studying maps in the textbook, we create a 3D map that students had to make on their own. 

We started with tracing the state on a piece of cardboard (We made a template from a manilla file folder--about a square foot in size) (the cardboard was brought in by students, varying sizes. The foam poster board works great.  

Students took their salt dough that they made at home and spread it within the traced state on their board. for those that brought dough that was too wet, we cut a hole in the corner of the bag and dispensed the dough like icing.

Students then made mountains and the escarpment lines in the dough. 

If you choose to have the students make the dough at home, bring extra flour to school incase some are too wet. It was nearly impossible and VERY messy for student to make their map if their dough was not the right consistency. After the dough dried for a day or 2, we painted the regions using acrylic paint and foam brushes.

 We painted in the major rivers and the Gulf of Mexico with blue paint. Labels were made to add to the map. Major cities, rivers, landforms and bordering states. Students had to draw the borders of the states around Texas, add a compass rose, and create a key for the colors in their map to correctly label the regions.