As inhabitants of an island, second graders at Mandalay Elementary School were thrilled to make their own fictitious islands as part of science unit on landforms.

In class, they have been learning about the different landforms that make up their planet. This knowledge was reinforced through a hands-on project with STEAM teacher Alexa Stroh.

Second graders cut a piece of while paper in any shape they wanted to make their island, then glued it down on a blue construction paper, which represented the ocean. For the second part of the project, they took Model Magic to make 3D landforms including a coastline, mountains and plains. They could even add a body of water like a lake or a river, and then use markers to color all of the landforms the appropriate colors.

Ms. Stroh said the final piece of the project will be making map keys for their islands.