The past 2 years I have assigned a California Relief Map project as an at home assignment but with any at home assignment, there is a lot of parent involvement and sometimes too much if you know what I mean. This year I decided to do the project in class with my students thanks to the help and guidance of a few other CA 4th grade blogger buddies who coached me through the process (Thanks Emily from I Love my Classroom).
The process only took 2 days! We studied the 4 regions of California and made a foldable that summarized our learning.
Then we made a rough draft of what our salt and dough relief map would look like.
First, they drew California and the bordering states (and country).
Then, we made the dough: 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of salt and 1/2 cup of water sealed in a freezer gallon size ziploc baggie. They “massage” the contents of the bag, mixing it so all the ingredients are doughy. Then came the messy part: Applying the dough to the outline of California.
The students made sure to build up there maps in the areas where the mountains are.
We did this on a Friday so that the dough could dry over the weekend.
Day 2- we painted!
After they dried we labeled the map and made a legend for the regions.
I am so glad that we did this in class! It was a great way to way for them to interact with geography and see all that they had learned from our Social Studies CLOSE reads. I can’t wait to do it again next year!
You are BRAVE for doing salt flour maps in class! The mess gives me anxiety, so I don't do it. But my partner teacher does it though. You're both brave!
I know what you mean about projects being done at home. Our CA projects were done at home last year, knowing full well that most parents would be doing it for their kids. When they all came in, there were several that were done soley by the child, and it was painfully obvious. Yet, I think I had more respect for those done by the kids.
Ali
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Ali,
I was super nervous and asked Emily and her coteacher how they did it… I still felt a little nervous about it so I had my class work in pairs. Next year I feel confident to have them fdo it on their own. They turned out so great!
Last year I made a class set of maps of Alberta, Canada out of Plaster of Paris. I wasn't brave enough to let the students make them. The kids really liked painting the different regions.