Pangaea

One way to get students to understand how the shape of coastlines and land features could be a clue to the movement of continents is to have them create their own landmass.  Students draw an outline of a landmass on a piece of paper.  They then fill in rivers, lakes, mountains, and other features.  The landmass is cut out and then torn into several pieces.  The pieces are given to another student to put back together. Students figure out what clues helped to fit the pieces back together, and what lands on a world map seem to fit together. This is a great activity to introduce plate tectonics.