Studying Geology

The kids and I have been learning about earth and how it was formed.  Currently we are looking into maps and landforms.  I wanted to share a few websites that I have found on this topic and that the kids and I have been exploring during this unit.

I purchased this packet which includes over 50 different landforms and bodies of water

We are adding pictures, definitions and finding examples of each landform or body of water to add to our packet.

we also made a few landforms of our own to help cement the ideas in the children's minds.  I found some free Montessori landform cards and a Pinterest idea that I thought kids would enjoy.

Kids used modeling clay to form the land forms

The kids painted them

The kids added color water to the trays

Then we took turns playing a game of matching the landform mold with the pictures and the kids identified several known landforms that we have been researching on the web for our above landform packet.

While looking into this topic we found a interesting video clip on "What is a continent"



Since we are using our maps and computer for this unit we started looking into maps and how they are very different depending on what you are using them for.  We watched this video clip from the show West Wing, which got us thinking and examining other maps




We have since look at the Mercator map, the Peterson map and the butterfly map and tried to distinguish the pros and cons of using each map.  This had lead to some very interesting discussions.

The last item I will share is an item my husbandfound from the Washington Post New site that did an article on 40 maps that explain the world.  Again interesting to look over with my children.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/01/13/40-more-maps-that-explain-the-world/?tid=pm_world_pop

We are wrapping up our geology unit in the next week or so and moving on to explore weather and metrology