Higher:
Explain the role decomposers play in creating soil
Middle:
Describe how soil is made using complex sentences
Lower:
Describe how soil is made using simple sentences
Higher:
Carry out a comparative test to group types of soil
Middle:
Describe the different properties of different soils
Lower:
Name some different types of soil
Higher:
Middle:
Lower:
Lesson Recap Starter: Think back to the last lesson. What is a fossil?
Lesson Starter: Describe the soil you see in the picture. What do you think it feels like?
Ask the children to describe the soil in the picture and what they think it would feel like? For this starter, you could bring some soil in and ask children to pass it around and feel it. What adjectives can they come up with to describe the feeling of the soil?
Presentation - Starter Slide.
Explore the presentation about different types of soil and what different soils are good and useful for.
Today's Song - ask the children to make up actions to the song.
Talk Partners - children have been shown different types of soil. Give them a soil to look at or think about. Children to imagine they are a worm - can they describe what it is like to wriggle through different soil types?
Key Concept:
During this unit, each lesson contains a key concept question housed in the '30 Second Challenge' slide. To help children master this content so the knowledge moves from their short term memory to their long term memory, at the beginning of the follow on lesson the question from the previous lesson is revisited.
The questions covered during this unit include:
1. How are mountains formed?
2. What are the main differences between the three different types of rock - metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary?
3. What is a fossil?
4. What are the different types of soil and what are they made of?
5. Explain how rocks are be weathered.
6. What can we learn from a gravestone and why?
Lyric sheet
Presentation
Expert Film: Mike and Paul explain how soil is made.
Talk about how important good soil is for farmers, growing food and feeding animals. What happens to a field if the soil is not fed and looked after? Microbiologists work with finding ways to improve the soil to make growing crops better.
How we deliver the Gatsby Benchmarks:
2 - Learning from career and labour market information: Pop along to Developing Experts career’s zone to find out about jobs in your area.
4 - Linking curriculum learning to careers: This unit showcases careers that relate to rocks. Access our 360° virtual work tours.
7 - Encounters with Further and Higher Education: Pop along to Developing Experts career’s zone to find out about training providers in your area.
Presentation - Expert Film
Soil Types Experiment
Watch the Lesson Assignment film for more help with this task.
Bring in four different types of soil. Set up four stations and pour a different type of soil on each of them. Label them soil 1, soil 2, soil 3, and soil 4. (We suggest that you do not bring in peat soil as peatlands are a valuable habitat that are under threat).
Children are to go round each station with a copy of the Handout and touch, smell, look at and squeeze the soil. Once children have made their notes, they will then test how well the soils hold water.
Ask them to place the filter paper at the top of the funnel and then fill it to the brim with soil. They should then pour a small amount of water (15ml) onto the soil, leave it for two minutes, and then measure how much water drained through into the beaker below.
Once they have carried out all these steps, they should guess what soil type was on each station.
Mission to Write! Soil Descriptions
Children are to use information learnt in the presentation and lesson, and use the word bank in Handout - Mission to Write! Soil Descriptions to help them write descriptions of four key soil types. They could write about the feel, the texture, the uses of the soils. On the second page of the Handout, children are challenged to compare two of the soils using a Venn diagram, and then to use the connectives given to write a comparative paragraph.
Encourage children to use the key words and to check spelling, punctuation and grammar.
Four dry soil samples.
Filter paper
Funnel
Beaker
Water
Hand washing facilities
Handout
Handout - Mission to Write! Soil Descriptions
Quiz
With their talk partners, the children are to go through the quiz at the end of the presentation and answer the questions.
Quiz in presentation
What would be the ideal type of soil?
What properties would such a soil have?
Why do you think this?
A light coloured, dry and rocky soil which does not hold water well is called?...chalky soil.
The Science Behind the Science
Soil is a mixture of organic matter and inorganic matter that is found on the surface of the Earth. It isn’t something that we usually think about and we are often surprised at the complexity of it. Soil itself can vary in its structure and composition and is vital to the sustainability of an ecosystem because it is the natural medium for growth of vegetation. The inorganic material within the soil isn’t living and includes minerals and weathered rocks. Did you know that weathering is the process in which rocks are broken down into smaller pieces? Once this process is complete, these smaller pieces of rock then mix with organic materials (those of living organisms) to then release nutrients for growth.
There are three different types of soil. Sand is one type that is made from small particles of rock that have undergone the weathering process. The sand itself is loose so that water can easily drain through it, making it excellent for drainage. It is also coarse. Sand isn’t good for growing plants because it cannot hold water or the nutrients that plants need.
Silt is another type of soil and it can be thought of as fine sand. It holds water a lot better than sand does, and is mainly composed of medium-sized particles. This type of soil holds more moisture than sandy soil, and often feels slick and smooth once water has been added to it.
Clay soil has over 25% clay in it and is fine-grained. The particles in clay soil are even smaller than those in silt, so there is even less space between the grains for both air and water to circulate effectively. This soil type is also known as heavy soil as it does not drain well or provide enough space for roots to grow. Clay holds most water in comparison to the other soils. However, when moisture is added to clay, it is very easily moulded into different shapes and sizes. Clay soil bakes in the Summer and often cracks due to its hardness.
Although there are three main types of soil, most soils are made from a combination of the three. For example, loam is a combination of sand, silt and clay. Its properties will vary depending on how much of each substance is present within it. For example, you may get sandy loam, silt loam, clay loam, sandy clay loam, silty clay loam, and loam. This type of soil usually contains a lot more nutrients and moisture which is necessary for better drainage and infiltration of water and air. Loam soil is suitable for growing pretty much all plant varieties.
Mission Assignment Information
The sand should have the lowest water holding capacity, the clay should have the highest water holding capacity. The loam should be somewhere in the middle with a darker colour than both the clay and the sand. This indicates that this type of soil contains a lot of nutrients.
Recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic material.
Materials - Earth's materials - Through evaluation of a range of data, I can describe the formation, characteristics and uses of soils, minerals and basic types of rocks. SCN 3-17a
The study of planet Earth and its position in the universe, particularly its relationship with the Sun; the natural phenomena and systems that shape the planet and the distinctive features that identify it.
Grouping and classifying.
Using straightforward and scientific evidence to answer questions, or to support their findings.
Grade 3 & 5 - Rocks and Soil.
Grade 1 - Earth Science - Our Earth - Earth's Resources - Why is soil important? Grade 2 - Earth Science - Our Earth - Earth's Resources - Soil - What is Soil? / How is soil formed? / What is soil? (living things in soil, how soil forms).
knows the main ingredients that make up the soil. Observe and describe the different characteristics of clay soil, loam soil and sandy soil (for example, sandy soil clay soil and loam suitable for different plants)