Yesterday we decided to do a little geography and talk about landforms. We ended up making our own landforms map on a large piece of poster paper.
I let them take the lead on this, so if you’re noticing that the map is a little “off” you are correct. If you have older children you might decide to get a little more technical!
First, I traced the outline onto the paper from the computer. This allowed me to increase the size to give more space for decoration.
Then, the kids traced where the mountains, hills and deserts would be based on an actual landforms map. They started coloring in the different forms: mountains, hills, desert, plains, rivers, and they also highlighted the great plains area.
Once they had the map colored, they added rivers. For this we used blue sharpie and then they traced in it blue glitter glue. If I had to do it over I would have waited on the glitter glue – we had to let it dry before we attached the rest of the items – but it still worked!
After that, they decided what they were going to add for each landform. They decided on random things from the pantry and made a key on the right side to show what each item symbolized. They added beans, grains, and sand for the hills, mountains, and desert regions.
The picture does not accurately depict the mess that was made with all of the objects, but it was very fun and engaging for both kids and was easy to clean up!
