Salt Dough

Each year in 3rd grade students learn about the landscape and landforms of South Carolina. To help them practice this we use salt dough to make our own little South Carolina. Week one is an introduction to the landforms and coloring a template of SC with the colors of the color wheel, one assigned for each type of landform. During week 2 we place a sheet of plastic over our colored sheet of paper and each student is given salt dough to sculpt their SC. They make sure to have the changes in the state where they belong (mountains, flat lands, coastal plains, etc.) and we let them dry for a week or so. Then we spend part of a class period painting our landforms to match our first coloring. They turn out really well and it's a great reinforcement of their science standards.

*The plastic we use is the left overs from the laminating machine. I just keep them cut down to squares in a box and they make great work surfaces for clay or salt dough!

Here's the recipe for Salt Dough. I found it online years ago but I'm not sure where.
If you're able to flip the sculpture over at some point it will help it dry much better. They take a while to dry so be prepared to have them sitting for a week of two depending on the weather!

Salt Dough
2 c all purpose flour + more just in case
1 c salt
almost 1 c warm tap water

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Add a little bit of water at a time until it feels like dough. You may need to add more flour at this point to keep it from sticking. When the mixture feels right you can begin to make your sculpture. When you are done making your masterpiece place it in a safe place to dry. This can take up to a week depending on the weather. You can store any remaining dough in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.