Salt Dough Map of America

Inspired by Hodgepodge's Salt Dough Map, we decided to make one of America. We used the same recipe for the salt dough they used, which can be found at Cooks.com.

Salt and Flour Dough For Maps

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 cup or less of water

Mix together flour and salt and add 1/2 cup water. Add additional water 1/8-1/4 of a cup at a time until it reaches desired consistency. This should be a very thick dough. If you get it too sticky, you can add more flour as needed.

We rolled out the dough on top of the cardboard we were using for its base.

I printed out a map of the US from Owl and Mouse and cut it out. I laid this cutout on the dough and then we cut away the dough we didn't want with a butter knife.

We cut in the groves for the major rivers and the boys made mountains for the ranges. They added these mountains to the map by wetting them a little. They got a little out of hand with the mountains, making them bigger and bigger as they went along, but they had a lot of fun with it.

Now we had to be patient and let it dry before we could paint it.
 A few days later, we got out the brown, green and blue to paint the major features.

 If your kids are older, you can get them to paint the elevations different shades, but we were happy with just the three colors.

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest,
to the gulf stream waters

This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway

I saw above me an endless skyway

I saw below me a golden valley

This land was made for you and me

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps

To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts

And all around me a voice was sounding

This land was made for you and me

The sun comes shining as I was strolling

The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling

The fog was lifting a voice come chanting

This land was made for you and me

lyrics by Woody Guthrie

 After the paint dried, we labeled the rivers with a fine point marker.

 One student painted Mt. Saint Helens as if it was erupting.