Contour maps

Before we go on our round-the-world trip for school, I thought it would be good to do a little bit with basic geography and map skills. So far we've covered north, south, east, and west; latitude and longitude; map projections and the challenges of creating flat maps of a curved surface, and today was contour and physical maps.

I first saw this 3-D contour model on Pinterest, and loved it, so decided we needed to create it.

Here is our little river delta with water, green areas and some hills. I made this as we discussed the different things we were learning about. The blue and green are our of foam sheets and the hills are made our of sheets of cork.

Then, because we were discussing how physical features translate into flat maps, they then drew a map of it.

H.'s

Y.'s

K.'s (Which if you look closely, you will see that he added Texas as an underwater island there in the ocean. No, I don't know why, and apparently neither does he. These things just seem to happen sometimes.)

The hills have the contour lines which show their elevation. They also colored them, because of having talked about physical maps representing the terrain with color. 

Our last project will be to do some compass work. This will involve a treasure hunt using the compasses outside. A project such as this always sounds so good on paper while you are planning, and quickly becomes one of those things you wonder what on earth you were thinking when you see it written down on the calendar and have to actually do it. First step, purchase actual, working compasses...