Moon Landform Models

There are many landforms on the moon similar to those on the earth. The four most common are:maria, rill, mountains and craters. Maria are flat land areas or plains. They are made of dark rock called basalt and it is found in many of our volcanoes on earth. Rills are the deep valleys that can be several hundred miles long. Mountains on the moon can vary greatly in size. The largest is over 29,000 feet high. Craters are very common on the moon and are formed from meteors.

Using salt dough, we set to work to make models of the moon's surface with the four prominent landforms. We labeled the model with flags made from toothpicks and file folder labels.

We enjoyed taking this recently-learned information and turning it into a fun project. It is unlikely that any of these fourth-graders will have difficulty remembering these landforms after this activity!

Here is one of the completed moon landform models. Well done, students!