Learning About Landforms

I pass my old students daily in the hallways and it never fails to 

amaze me how BIG they get! They often pop in to say hi

and my current class loves it when 

"big kids" visit! Mostly so they can pepper them with

questions!  Most often they ask "What was your favorite

thing you did in second grade?" and making landforms

is high on the list! Our Continents, Oceans and Landforms project

is always a huge highlight and a whole lotta fun!

We start by reviewing continents and oceans (first grade 

spends a lot of time on this) then identifying and defining 

different types of landforms.

We worked with vocabulary, classifying landforms as water 

or land features, labeling continents and oceans on maps, 

and defining different types of landforms

in our literacy centers.

Next we used Crayola Air Dry Clay to build imaginary islands.

Our islands had to have at least three landforms.

They could be completely made up but needed to be

in a real ocean near a real continent.

We made these on a Friday so they could dry over the weekend.

On Monday we painted our islands.

Next, we made maps of our islands. We just finished our unit on 

map skills and I love this PowerPoint from Teacher's Clubhouse! 

 I use it every year and keep it up as a reference while my class

makes their maps, map keys, compass roses.

Students named their islands and drew maps that featured 

all of their landforms, a map key and compass rose.

We carried this topic over into our literacy centers and writing block.

This is my favorite part!  My kiddos did some very creative 

writing and wrote imaginary personal narratives about 

life on their islands.

First we brainstormed a list of adjectives to help set the tone, 

maketheir writing stronger, and give their reader a more 

vivid mental picture.

We did some prewriting to solidify our ideas.  Next, we 

orally rehearsed our ideas turning them into a story

with a  partner.

We wrote postcards home to Mom and Dad from our islands too!

After all of these elements were finished we glued 

the prewriting and final drafts  into a folder with our postcard 

on the front and maps on the back to share with parents 

at our upcoming conferences. My kiddos begged 

to take their islands home as soon as they were finished 

but I didn't dare send them on the bus with a teetering paper plate!

 This way we could discuss their writing during our conference and 

Mom and Dad could carry the island home!  

These projects are keepers I tell ya!

Click on any of the images if you'd like to do this
landforms writing project with your class. You can find
the lesson plan, reference charts,assessments,
printables, literacy centers, and templates here.

Visit this post to see more about our landforms projects
and check out how we displayed our writing!

Happy teaching friends!