Salt Dough Maps

 It was salty madness - I tell you! Arrrrhhhhhggggg! 

Here is a simple, inexpensive recipe that will have you on your way to getting your students aesthetically, kinesthetically, and analytically  involved in whatever content area it is applied - we used social studies - geography.

Making the Dough:  Mix 1 cup of salt, 2 cups of water and 1 cup water (or less) into a pliable dough. If the dough is too sticky, more flour may be added; if it is too dry, add a bit more water.

Dough batches can be sent in by parents to expedite the activity; or just request donations of ingredients from parents if you choose to integrate a bit of math measurement make the dough with the students in class.

You will also want rectangular or square sections of heavy cardboard to build maps upon (the lids of paper boxes work nicely), craft sticks and toothpicks for cutting dough and marking important features, rolling pins, paint (minimum brown, green, blue), brushes, 8.5 x 11 topographical map printouts, index cards and markers for labeling. You should also encourage students to bring any bits and scraps: foreign currency, buttons, small flags, Lego figures, etc. they want to use in representing their country.

Step One: Roll the dough out on top of the cardboard. You will want to leave it pretty thick. An alternative is to press and mold the dough only using your hands. This technique worked really well for one of our groups that tried it - and their resulting topographical map looked very authentic!

Step Two: Lay your printed out topographical map on top of the dough and cut around the perimeter.

Step Three: Remove the printed map and locate significant land forms such as rivers, bodies of water, mountains, as well as major cities or attractions. Mark them - we etched out rivers with toothpicks and took extra dough to form mountain ranges.

Step Four: Paint! Show your students how to use a gentle touch painting atop the wet dough. Gentle strokes and patting paint on works best.

Step Five: Label! While paint and dough are still wet, students may create mini flags using bits of card stock and toothpicks to label cities, rivers, mountain ranges, etc. Or - you may wish to give the maps 48 hours to dry, and then use fine tipped Sharpie markers to label directly on the dough.

Step Six: Reflect! We were encouraged to reflect on this experience at length - we journaled and we shared, but in an elementary school setting it would be a super extension for students to write or create power-points about their countries or states, to create lists of new vocabulary or terminology from their topographical maps, to identify features that match the five themes of geography, to share their countries in a presentation to another class, or to create quizzes for fellow classmates to take.