Students look for evidence on their school grounds of plants and animals helping to form soil. They observe a variety of living and nonliving things associated with soil, conduct soil investigations, and identify some human effects on soil. Soil supports life, and life enriches soil. Students listen to Under the Ground by Gallimard Jeunesse and Pascale de Bourgoing and conclude that soil provides food and protection for animals. Outdoors, students observe ways wild animals use soil.
Students participate in a guided imagery through an underground burrow.
They design a model of the soil animal they represent in their cooperative group. As an optional activity, the class creates a diorama of an underground area that students can crawl through. Students observe a plant to determine that soil provides plants with a place to anchor their roots. They feel the texture of different soils, plant bean seeds in a variety of soils, predict which soil their plants will grow best in, and record and graph their observations concerning their plants' growth. They identify ways plants depend on soil.