Land, Air, Water

What You Need:

• 3 small glass jars
• Small amount of potting soil
• Small amount of water
• Permanent marker
• Safety scissors
• Magazines full of outdoor photos

What You Do:

1. Put the potting soil in one of the glass jars. Label this jar “earth.”
2. Add the water to a second jar. Label this jar “water.”
3. Label the third jar “air.”
4. Have your child go through the magazines and cut out a variety of outdoor pictures. Make sure that these images include photos of sky (air), water (oceans, rivers or lakes) and land (mountains, deserts, etc.).
5. As he works, cut out some of your own photos. When you look for pictures of the sky, include photos of rain and snow, day and night. For water photos, can you find a frozen sea?  
6. Once he has cut out numerous photos, help him divide the images, including yours, into three stacks, one in front of the jar of earth, another in front of the water jar and the last in front of the air jar. As he works, discuss how some of the photos, such as a sunset over the ocean or a river bank, could go in more than one stack.

Expand on this activity by encouraging your young learner to make three different geography collages—one each for land, water, and air. He may need to find some more images but the art-creation component will help establish the concepts.