Landforms are the different shapes that Earth's land can take. Some land pokes up high into the sky, and some land spreads out flat and wide. When you look around outside or at a map, you are seeing landforms everywhere.

A mountain is the tallest kind of landform, rising up high with steep sides and often a pointed top. A hill is like a smaller, rounder cousin of a mountain, and it is much easier to walk up. Between mountains and hills you can find a valley, which is the low, sunken land that dips down in the middle.

A plain is a wide stretch of flat land with almost no hills at all. Plains are great for farming because tractors can drive across them easily and crops have lots of room to grow. Many towns and farms are built on plains.

Some landforms are surrounded by water. An island is a piece of land with water all the way around it on every side. A peninsula is land that sticks out into the water but is still connected to a bigger piece of land, like a finger poking into a lake.

People care about landforms because they change how we live. It is hard to build a city on a steep mountain, but easy on a flat plain. Knowing the shape of the land helps us decide where to farm, build roads, and find fun places to hike.