Landforms
Background Information & Activities

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Your children should be familiar with different landforms in their neighborhood and beyond. Review that a landform is a natural formation or area of land. Continents, mountains, plateaus, hills, valleys, plains, coasts, bays, and islands are just a few examples of different landforms. We encourage screening this movie and then using different maps and globes to guide discussion about local landforms in your community, city, or state.

Earth is divided into seven continents: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Antarctica. Remind your children that there are landforms throughout the continents. If possible, take your children on a walk in the neighborhood and point out different landforms. Look at a hill together and have your children notice how it rises above the surrounding area and has a rounded top. You may want to compare and contrast different hills in your community. A mountain is a landform that also rises above the surrounding area, but it has a peak. A row of connected mountains is called a range. You may wish to point out different mountain ranges in the United States. The longest mountain range is the Andes Mountains of South America, which goes through seven countries. A plateau is similar to a mountain, but it has a flat surface on top.

A valley is a landform that is lower than the surrounding area. Valleys are often found between hills, mountains, and plateaus. Water from higher areas can flow down into valleys, creating rivers and streams. As a result, some lands in valleys are fertile and good for agriculture and grazing livestock. A canyon is a landform with very steep sides. You may want to show pictures of the Grand Canyon or other canyons in the Southwest. Canyons can form when rivers wear away at rocks over millions of years.

A plain is a wide, flat area of land. The Great Plains covers parts of the United States and Canada and provides land for farming and raising livestock due to its fertile soil and flat terrain. A prairie is a grassy plain with few or no tress, and prairies can be found on the Great Plains. However, it is important for your children to understand that plains can be covered by forests or ice. They can also be underwater, on the ocean floor.

A coast is where land meets an ocean. Coasts can be rocky and steep, or they can be relatively flat and sandy. A bay is an area of water surrounded by land on three sides. Bays often form when water wears away at the coast over thousands of years. The water inside of a bay is often calm and sheltered from wind. An island is an area of land that is surrounded by water. You may wish to point out different islands on a map. There are seven thousand islands in the Caribbean alone.

Help your children understand the world they live in beyond their communities. How might life be different if they lived on island? How might life be different if they lived on a mountain? Investigating different landforms allows children to explore the world without buying a plane ticket!

Landforms Teacher Activities – Click Here!

Landforms Family Activities – Click Here!

Landforms Teacher Activities

© 1999-2009 BrainPOP. All rights reserved.

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.

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 any cultural events that might take place there 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.

Landforms Family Activities

© 1999-2009 BrainPOP. All rights reserved.

Visit a Landform

Visit a landform with your child. You might want to hike on a mountain trail, visit the beach or coast, or take a bike ride along a plain or valley. This is a great opportunity to get some exercise together and learn about your area. Make sure your child brings notebooks, pencils, and crayons to take notes and make sketches. Ask your child to look for other landforms in your area, such as hills and mountains.

This Land is Your Land

Have your child imagine living in a land completely different from where you currently live. How would life be different if you lived in the mountains? How would life be different if you lived on a coast? Have your child draw pictures, write stories, or even write a letter about his or her typical day in their new home.