Salt Dough Maps

Last week we made salt dough maps. Sophie was assigned to make a 3D map of a South American country. I thought this  would be an ideal time for the boys to do a map of the USA. So they made some salt dough:

4 cups flour

2 cups salt

2 T cream of tarter

2 cups water.

They cut up a box to get some flat cardboard. Sophie printed out map of Peru cut it out and then traced it.

I drew the USA on the cardboard for the boys. Neither of them was up to the task of enlarging the shape of our country since their board was so much bigger than the printout. They all then got to work filling in the outline and then squishing the dough into ridges to form the mountain ranges and pushed in the dough where the rivers would be.

Molly of course had to have her own project. She didn't want to do a map. She wanted to make a princess. Sophie drew a nice outline on the cardboard for her and helped Molly fill it in.

It was hard for the kids to wait for them to dry before painting.  I guess we could have baked them but I just had them sit for about three days. They were nice and dry by then and ready for the paint.

Here are the finished products.

Molly's princess is dressed in PINK of course!

Sophie's Peru turned out very nice.

 

The boy's map of the USA looks good too. They were all happy with the results.

Now I have my usual dilemma.... What do we do with their masterpieces?