Second Grade Earth Science Activity: Landscape Landforms
This fun activity is part of an NGSS Interactive Notebook & Activities resource! If you enjoy this activity, please head on over to the (super cool) Science Demo Guy TpT store and check it out! 🙂
You can download all of the Interactive Notebook Pages associated with Next Generation Science Standard K-LS1-1 FREE by clicking here.
NGSS 2-ESS2-2
Develop a model to represent the shapes and kinds of land and bodies of water in an area.
***Note, this activity is not meant to comprehensively cover this standard but rather to introduce or compliment the instruction of the standard in whole.
In this activity, students will learn about different landforms and create a landscape of their own out of salt dough clay!
Air Dry Salt Dough:
Salt dough clay is VERY easy to make and takes relatively little time…but there are often willing parents who would make a few batches for your class :-).
Materials:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup water
Directions: In a large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together. Slowly add in the water, you might not need all of it. You want the dough to have a soft, pliable consistency, it should not be sticky. Store in an airtight container or ziplok bag(s).
Materials:
Sturdy Paper Plate (Medium Size) for the base
Salt dough (1 cup)
Toothpicks
Masking Tape
Marker for writing on the Masking Tape
Paint, Paper Plate Palette, and Brushes
In this activity, students will solidify what they have learned about landforms by creating their own landform landscape. They can choose their favorite landforms and build a landscape out of salt-dough clay.
NOTE: Each landscape should be SMALL. This means making less salt dough and aides in air-dry time. The dough will not harden all the way through but allowing the landscape sculptures to dry overnight should make the outisde dry enough to paint.
Directions:
1. Break students up into groups of 2-3. Alternately, you could have each student make their own.
2. Have each group/student choose the landforms they wish to include and write them down on the their response sheet. They will then draw a picture to plan their landscape. If you’d like them to add these into their notebooks, each student can draw their own—but make sure everyone has the same drawing per group so they’re not planning several different ideas. You can download the interactive notebook pages for this activity by click here.
3. Have students write their names on the back of their group’s plate. Next, students will begin building their landscapes on top of the plate.
4. Students need to label each of the landforms using a toothpick and masking tape tag (flag).
5. Let the dough air dry overnight and paint the landscapes the next day!
Check it out!
We’ve created an Activities & Interactive Notebook Bundle that includes ALL of the second grade Next Generation Science standards! You can check it out by clicking here!
Standards covered in this bundle:
NGSS 2-ESS1-1 Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
NGSS 2-ESS2-1 Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
NGSS 2-ESS2-2 Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
NGSS 2-ESS2-3 Earth’s Systems: Processes that Shape the Earth
NGSS 2-LS2-1 Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
NGSS 2-LS2-2 Life Science Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
NGSS 2-LS4-1 Life Science Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems
NGSS 2-PS1-1 Structure and Properties of Matter
NGSS 2-PS1-2 Structure and Properties of Matter
NGSS 2-PS1-3 Structure and Properties of Matter
NGSS 2-PS1-4 Structure and Properties of Matter
Second Grade NGSS Reference (Click Here)
