Fun with Soil
Children can enjoy exploring with different kinds of soils or dirt. They can compare which soil can hold water best, what kind of living things are found in soil, or just discover what is happening in a small patch of grass in the backyard. An area can be marked off with craft sticks and yarn or rope to be explored.
Younger cildren can draw their findings and older children draw, label and/or write about their discoveries. Perhaps they can look at the patch of grass before a rain and after a rain. Different times of the day can also be recorded. However, your children have a chance get their hands in the dirt, it will be a great!
I gathered three types of soil or dirt to experiment with. Sand, clay, and loam. The children placed a small amount of each on a clear cup lined wih a coffee filter. Water was then slowly poured on top of each cup to observe what would happen and record results to be compared. We later talked about our results and took a vote to choose which soil they think a seed would grow best in and planted a seed in each type of soil to discover which one did.
Children have such a great time learning and exploring outside. Take activities outside whenever you can and these will lead to many other discussions and projects inside as well as continue outside. This can now lead to perhaps, a unit study to find out the importance of worms in the soil.