Desert dunes look like slow motion waves.
Hills, mountains, rivers, oceans, valleys and deserts make up some of the landforms found on Earth. You can divide landforms into different types depending on the forces that created them. Glaciers, wind, water and the pressure of the Earth, including volcanoes and plates pushing against each other, are the main factors that build a landscape. Replicating landforms helps students learn about the differences in the Earth's surface.
Flour Clay Landscapes
Flour clay can be used as sculpting dough for several land form science projects. Simple recipes to make the dough can be found online. Make the dough and shape into various land forms. Bake the dough according to the recipe and paint to resemble the landscape you've created.
Rivers
Mix a batch of flour clay and line a deep pie tin or brownie pan with aluminum foil. Use the dough to mold a river system. Fill the pan half way with dough. Don't flatten the dough completely; bumps and knobs better represent a natural landscape. Scrape a meandering river out of the dough bed with two fingers. Don't scrape all the way down to the aluminum foil. After baking and cooling the dough, paint the river water blue and the vegetation brown and green. Allow the paint to dry before spraying with clear varnish.
Mountains
Mix a large batch of dough clay. Foil a flat cookie sheet and build a large mountain on it out of the dough. Make the peaks craggy by cutting them with spatulas. Use small pieces of evergreen shrubs for trees. Don't put trees in the highest peaks, leave them barren. Let the form dry for several days, then paint the mountains in blues and purples. Put white paint on the highest peaks for snow. If you have a large enough area to build more than one mountain peak, you can demonstrate a saddle or valley between the mountains.
Desert
Cover the table with a cloth. Place a shallow pan full of dry flour on the table and offer the students straws. Bend over and blow gently across the surface of the flour through the straw. Stay back far enough while blowing to keep a wind storm from happening. Note the formations that blowing on the "sand" creates. Shake the pan to flatten out the desert, and allow everyone to have a turn.
Tags: aluminum foil, highest peaks
