Classroom Activities: Landforms

These classroom activities are designed to complement the Landforms topic on BrainPOP Jr.

Map It Out
Have your students create a relief or topographical map of their neighborhoods. You may first want to provide different examples of maps and discuss different landforms and map features. We also recommend viewing the Reading Maps movie with your class. You can print out simple blackline maps of your area from the Internet and have your students color in different landforms. Remind them to create a key for their maps, so they can indicate the different heights and depths of landforms such as hills and mountains, and canyons and chasms.

Model Students

Have your students make dioramas or three-dimensional models of a landform of their choice. They may want to research at the library to learn more about their landform before beginning their models. Encourage them to be creative! Students can glue sand, dirt, or grass to shoeboxes to create dioramas or, if they use waterproof materials like a plastic tub and modeling clay, they can pour water over their creation to see how water moves and settles around their landform.

Landform Travel Fair

Have students pick a specific landform they might like to visit (i.e. Cape Cod, Mt. St. Helens, or a specific island) and research exciting facts about their chosen place. Then hold a Travel Fair in your classroom. Students can find out about how the landform was formed, and learn about any cultural and historical events that might have taken place there. Then they can plan their booth and prepare posters for their landform. They might dress in related costumes, prepare local foods, or create travel guides for their chosen location. Students can travel from booth to booth to learn about different landforms around the world.