We had lots of fun talking and reading about different kinds of landforms and learning which are our favourites.

Edible Landform Diorama

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What you'll need:

  • A tray covered in tinfoil
  • fudge brownie cake
  • waffle ice cream cones
  • sprinkles (ideally green for the grass but we couldn't find any)
  • icing
  • jello 
  • blue food colouring
  • tooth picks
  • pieces of paper
  • pen

How to do it:

  1. First prepare the jello for the water (apple juice and agar powder and blue food colouring and set it aside.
  2. be creative and think about which landforms you want to use: Peninsula, mountain, plain, plateau, valley, river, ocean, island etc
  3. Begin by creating your land with the fudge brownie cake. 
  4. Add the "water"
  5. use your imagination and add in the cones, sprinkles etc.
  6. add in your labels (you may need to wait a little bit before adding labels to the water)

Cave In A Jar

Of all the landforms I think caves won Nixie's attention and we decided to learn a bit more about them. Here we created our own little cave in a cup. This experiment shows that as water flows beneath the Earth's surface it dissolves and erodes the rock, forming cavities that become caves.

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What you'll need:

  • Clear plastic cup
  • sugar cubes
  • sand
  • waterproof wood glue
  • something to make a hole in your cup
  • a large basin to catch the run-off water
  • warm water

 

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How to do it:

  1. place a layer of sand at the bottom of your cup about 1-2cm thick
  2. place a layer of sugar cubes on top of the sand (as many as will fit)
  3. completely cover the sugar cubes with your glue (enough glue to run along the sides of the sugar cubes)
  4. add another layer of sand
  5. repeat the process as much as you can and end with a layer of glue. Leave about 2cm at the top
  6. now let it dry for a couple of days
  7. poke 1-2 holes on the side of your cup near the very bottom where you see the sugar cubes.
  8. place your completed cave in a cup in a bigger container to catch the water and then begin to slowly pour hot water onto that top layer of sand in the cup. Let the water percolate through the layers to find the holes near the bottom. Continue to pour warm water until all of the sugar cubes dissolve, leaving behind the hardened glue and sand.

 

 

Edible Cave Treats

And of course we had to find a sweet treat that could go along with learning about caves!

 

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What you'll need:

  • Jus-Roll Puff Pastry
  • marshmallows
  • melted butter
  • sugar
  • cinnamon

 

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How to do it:

  1. Preheat oven to package instructions
  2. mix cinnamon and sugar in a bowl
  3. unroll your dough
  4. roll marshmallow in melted butter and then in the sugar mixture
  5. place coated marshmallow in the centre of your pastry and then wrapping the marshmallow up completely, pinching the sides
  6. put onto baking sheet and then into the oven according to package instructions
  7. enjoy!