Each team receives a thin sheet cake (I use half a box of cake mix and spread it into a cookie sheet with wax paper) that will be large enough for their map.
Each team must designate: team water, team land, team mountains, and team flags.
The students in charge of water and land receive ziplocs of frosting to which we then add blue and green dye. I cut a tiny hole in their bags when they're ready, and they start tracing!
The students in charge of mountains use mini chocolate chips to locate the Alps and the Apennines.
While this is going on, students from each team have been working on flags that state the location names for the places on the map.
Here is what it turns out like...
