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Home : 2003 : October : 17

idea
By cll

We are studying the same thing in my 2nd grade class. As an ending activity we made salt dough islands. We made the dough together and then I gave them a hunk to make their island. All I told them to do was to be sure
to put different types of landforms on their island. After they dried they painted them. It took several days for them to dry.
They drew a map of their island and included the capital and major cities. Next I had them write a paragraph describing their island (what ocean it was in, what landforms were on it, what the weather was like, the name, etc.) They also wrote a paragraph about

the people (what they looked like, what they ate, what jobs they had, what their houses looked like.) Then I had them pretend to be a person from their island and describe a day in their life.

Everything had to be tied to what landforms were on their island and where it was. For example, one of my boys had a chocolate theme. His island was in the Arctic Ocean so it was cold to keep the chocolate from melting. He had a chocolate river and the people worked at making chocolate candies.

You could have your principal observe you making the dough, which is measurement and reading a recipe, and then explain about the future writing tie -in.

You can search the internet for different recipes and things to do with salt dough maps. I used 4 cups of flour, 3 cups of salt, 2 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of cooking oil for each group. I had four groups of six kids each. There are about 20 different recipes that I found on the web. The islands turned out a little flaky, and if they make mountains you have to be careful, because the inside does not completely dry and they can tip over. My second graders are thrilled, though!

Hope this helped. Search the web for other ideas!