How to Make a Salt Dough Map - Fun with Geography

Make geography fun by creating a textured map of your favorite place!

Makes approximately 3-1/2 cups of dough, which is enough for one map.

What You Will Need:

• 1 cup Salt
• 2 cups Flour
• 2 teaspoons Cream of Tartar (Alum)
• 1 cup Water
• Mixing Bowl
• Mixing Spoon
• Wood or Cardboard Base (we like to use new pizza boxes)
• Paints and Paintbrushes
• Pictures of Contour Maps
• Geography Information Sheet (optional)

What You Do:

1. Determine which country, continent, state, etc. that you want to model your map after. Draw the contours onto a piece of cardboard or wood base to use as a guide.
2. Make your dough by mixing salt, flour, and Cream of Tartar together in a mixing bowl. Slowly add water to form a stiff dough, then knead the dough until it is smooth and soft.
3. Place your dough onto your model surface. Dough can be rolled and coiled to form the contours, or pushed and pulled to form the shapes you need. Smooth out the dough to form rivers, oceans, or other features.
4. Once your contour map model is completed, allow the dough to dry thoroughly.
   NOTE: This can take several days, depending on the thickness of the dough map.
5. Once the dough as dried, paint your map.

Variations:

• We like to use clean pizza boxes to hold our maps. The contour map can be placed in the bottom of the pizza box, and then an atlas picture of the map can be glued to the inside cover to act as a display stand. Add important notes about the map you created, such as population, elevation, crops, industry... anything you have learned about the place your map is modeled after.
• If you prefer, add paint to your dough mixture inside of painting the map after the dough has dried.
• This dough can be used for more than just maps! Use it to make holiday decorations, models of inventions, figures... let your imagination go!
• This recipe makes a very smooth dough. If you like more texture, you can add more salt or use a course salt. The Alum also makes the recipe dry quicker than other salt dough recipes.
• Dough can be made ahead of time and stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. The dough can be kept for several days this way without drying out.