Salt dough maps are a great tactile way to teach geography.
I have heard complaints from many about dough that never dries. When I see the recipes they were given, I understand why that happened.
The proportion of water to flour was incorrect. Worse, the directions often say to arbitrarily add all the ingredients before mixing.
That is often a recipe for disaster. I know. I’ve been there.
Then I had an aha moment while watching professional chefs on tv. But first we need to collect the supplies.
Prepare Cardboard Base
In preparation for salt dough map projects, I collect cardboard from old boxes, cut down to the size of our map that I have printed out, 8.5″x11″, one for each student. I also print an extra copy for our master copy.
Foolproof Salt Dough Map Recipe
For the salt dough map I first mix the dry ingredients (2 cups flour and 1/2 cup salt), then add just enough water to make a moist, pliable dough, not too wet nor too dry.
That’s the secret! (Don’t dump in a lot of water, just a bit at a time while mixing. Depending on the humidity level of the house/outdoors, the liquid needed will always vary.)
Knead the dough until smooth.
Create Landforms
After making the salt dough, I give each of the kids a map pasted onto cardboard. With the salt dough set in the middle of the table, the kids can easily access the amount they need for their project.
The kids take some dough to shape on top of the land areas, leaving the water areas alone.
From their studies and a bit of research on topography, they use more dough for mountains and less for valleys.
They don’t need to get too scientifically perfect with this. The general representation works.
Poke Holes for Identification Labels
While the dough is still damp, poke holes for the placement of identification markers. (Reference an extra copy of the map.)
If the project must be put aside for awhile, we put the extra dough in a ziplock bag and seal it until its next use.
Dry
After completing the landforms completed, we set the maps aside to dry, which usually takes a day. We quickly dried ours in our hot garage in Texas.
Store the remaining dough in a ziplock bag and place in the freezer until the next project.
Painting
Once dry, the kids paint the landforms: blue for water, green or brown for land, white for snow. (Reference an atlas to determine whether green, brown, or white will be used.)
Insert Location Labels
When done, they cut out bits of construction paper to write names of locations from the master map.
These are glued to the tops of toothpicks. Then the bottom tips are dipped in glue and placed in the premade label holes.
