Bringing Geography to Life

This week in geography (Bible geography) we are studying all about the Fertile Crescent - in the Holy Lands. We are specifically learning about Abraham's trip from Ur to Egypt. The kids both created their own Fertile Crescent 3-D maps out of salt dough.

What exactly is the Fertile Crescent? It is the land which completely engulfs the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The soil is very deep and rich, making it the perfect place for people to settle and live off of. Their only other choice are the surrounding dry desert lands. The Fertile Crescent is the bright green section on the map.

The kids had a blast mixing and kneading their dough.





Once the dough was all mixed, they formed it into the Fertile Crescent shape (as best as they could - the dough was pretty sticky!!)



Lionel's map:


Sweet-Pea's map:


Once they are dry, the kids will mark the major cities and other geographic areas.

Recipe for Salt Dough:

• 2 parts flour
• 1 part salt
• 1 part water

We used 3 cups of flour, and 1 1/2 cups of both salt and water. Simply mix the ingredients together. If it seems crumbly just add more water. Sweet-Pea colored hers green with food coloring, but Lionel is going to paint his once it's dry.

I'm really proud of how well they did. In fact, I'm really proud of how well things have gone this school year already. This week went by very quickly, and both kids worked very hard which was evident from all we got accomplished.