We made a salt dough map as part of our Tapestry of Grace arts and activities assignment. We made it on a Friday after lunch, mixing up the flour, salt and water recipe. I opened up a SunButter box and covered it with tin foil. The children each scooped out a portion of the salt dough mixture and each chose a few terms from the Tapestry list. It was a family effort.
We talked about or looked up the definitions:
- tributary
- source (river)
- mouth (river)
- peninsula
- island
- plateau
I asked the children to cooperate and draw a map of their imaginary land. I like the question mark island 🙂
- canal
- sea
- bay
We reviewed the names of continents and oceans then labeled them on our maps.
- summit
- delta
- port
- mountain range
- inlet
- cliff
Yes, ooey gooey geography!
Then we set the map aside to dry for a week. I stuck it on top of a bookshelf.
The next week we painted! Even Littlest Guy joined in the fun. He painted swirls and darker ocean. We used simple tempura paints.
Then we set it aside to dry for another week. No rush, right? We tend to save Tapestry arts and activities projects to do all in one day each week. Another day, we read the book, Me on the Map. This little book is a simple look at maps, starting with the map of a little girl’s room, then street, then town, then state, country, continent.
We made our own map of our house, upstairs and down.
The next time we turn our attention to our salt dough map, we’ll make little flag type labels for our land formations. Even the volcano (which wasn’t on the Tapestry list 🙂 It was a Hodgepodge addition.)
Perfect project to save for our annual Homeschool Expo in the spring. A perfect hands-on learning option for geography, making for fun afternoons of creating.
Oh, I LOVE this!!!
This looks amazing! You are such a fun mom!
I love this. I am planning for teaching geography terms and was telling my co-teacher that I wanted to do a salt dough activity so I looked it up online. You stole my thunder, along with several others, but I love the assistance it has given me. Thank you!
You are welcome fellow salt dough mapper! 🙂
I’m gearing up for my FIRST week with Tapestry… and your site has helped me be less scared. 🙂 We’re schooling 6 {pregnant with our 7th} and I’m trying to figure out how in the world to fit in Rhetoric, Dialectic, Upper AND Lower Grammar… I think we’ll just read a book and make salt dough maps and call it a day at first. LOL
I’m not crafty- glad to know it’s ok to spread out over a few weeks with ToG.
Absolutely Allie! My best advice would be to look at the columns for each of those that you mentioned above – and to pick one read aloud you can all do together as a bed time reading. Pick one Friday a month and declare it Tapestry arts and crafts day and do all the projects in one swoop. Sit down once a week with your older ones (my dialectic and rhetoric children have their own planners) and talk about the week. Discuss assignments and have them write them down. That way they know what is expected and there is accountability. Combine upper and lower grammar and while you put your feet up in the afternoon (because you need to mama!), read aloud. Reserve all the books you can from the library and put them in a central location (we do the family room fireplace mantel and the coffee table) just so they are in sight and inviting. Those are just a few little tips that helped us (me!) so much. Happy first week of Tapestry!!