Lewis and Clark Salt Dough Map

During our Lewis and Clark unit study we completed a salt dough map tracking their journey west. We are using Little School Smiths unit study for our lesson plans. All the instructions and labels are part of the lesson. We read What was the Lewis and Clark Expedition as our main book. 

Along with the salt dough map the boys wrote a paragraph about the Louisiana Purchase. 

We also learned about Thomas Jefferson and his role during the Louisiana Purchase and Expedition West. 

We like tying our history and language arts lessons together. We covered Cause and Effect during one of our English lessons. 

The map was helpful during our reading. It allowed the boys to visualize the main events and where they took place. 

We were also able to review map symbols and directions during this activity. 

Compass Rose

To help my boys learn about the compass rose we did some fun hands on activities. Here are some of the things we did. 

We started by reviewing the cardinal directions using 3 part cards from The Modern Montessori Guide.

 

Next we made a compass rose out of salt dough. We used a template from Kids Activities Blog.

We glued all the pieces together with hot glue.

Parts of a River Salt Dough Model

Hi guys, today I wanted to share with you a DIY project we made for geography. We made a river model using salt dough to learn all the parts of a river. 

Materials

1. Salt Dough

2. A tray 

3. Paint

4. Toothpicks

5. Paper for making the labels

Salt Dough Recipe

1. 2 cups of flour

2. 1 cup of salt

3. 1 cup of water

Mix the salt and flour together and slowly add the water until you get a play dough consistency. Knead the dough until smooth. You can refrigerate and save for more projects. 

We usually do projects like these on a Friday. Then we leave it over the weekend to dry before we paint it. 

Add toothpicks to the parts you want to label so that you have holes before the salt dough dries. Once everything is dry including your paint make your paper labels. 

We used parts of a river booklet from Montessori Print Shop to help us label our river. 

Your child can keep practicing using their model until they learn all the parts of a river.