EXPLORATION
PRIMARY ELEMENTARY | SCIENCE
Recognizing Soil as the Source
Students will learn to recognize earth materials.
Time
45 Minutes
Setting
InsideCollection Group
Standards
- SKE2c. Students will recognize earth materials – soil, rocks, water, air, etc.
a. Ask questions to identify and describe earth materials—soil, rocks, water, and air.
Materials
- Whiteboard or easel, markers
- Journals or 8.5×11 copy paper (1 per student)
- Coloring supplies (enough for each student)
Procedures
- Pose the question to students, “What is the difference between dirt, mud, and soil?”. Discuss how dirt and mud are often referred to as a nuisance (“Don’t get dirty! Don’t track mud into the house!”) but how soil is a nutrient-rich valuable resource that grows all of our food.
- Ask one student what they had for breakfast then demonstrate how everything they ate originally came from a plant and from the soil.Here are some examples:Vegetables → grown in soilFruits → grown in soil
Bread → made from grain → grown in soil
Eggs → came from chickens → that ate plants → grown in soil
Milk → came from cows → that ate grass → grown in soil
Honey → made by bees, from nectar collected from flowers → grown in soil
Meat → came from an animal (that may have eaten another animal but eventually) → that animal ate plants → grown in soil - Challenge students to (in their journals) draw something that they ate for lunch and draw the chain back to the soil.
Recommended Resources
Online
Children’s Literature
- Jump into Science: Dirt by Steve Tomecek
- Dirt: The Scoop on Soil by Natalie Rosinsky (Provided in Lesson Kit)
- Soil Basics by Mari Schuh
- Soil: A True Book by Christin Ditchfield
- In the Garden with Dr. Carver by Susan Grigsby, 18-23 (Provided in Lesson Kit)
More Explorations
Shaking Down the Soil
Exploring the Ingredients in Soil
Comparing Soils
