Layers of Soil

I  purchased this awesome rock/mineral unit from TpT.  It's really a nice supplement to our existing curriculum.

As part of this unit, I decided to use some hands on activities to teach about the layers of soil.  First we watched a video from Brainpopjr on soil.

I paused the video often to ask questions and to review key vocabulary-topsoil, subsoil, bedrock, humus, and decompose.

After that we went to the science lab, where I had plates at each station.  Each station had mini marshmallows, Cheerios, Coco Krispies, and gummy worms.  I asked the children to guess what each food represented in terms of the soil layers.

After that we used the food to make a soil layer model.  The marshmallows on the bottom, topped with Cheerios, then Krispies, then a worm.

After that the kids wanted to eat it, so I allowed them to do so while they completed an exit slip-the had to draw and label each layer of the soil.

Easy and FUN!