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Soil and stone |
Experiencing different landscapes (beaches, hills, forests, fields). |
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Show appreciation and sing thanks to the landscapes for letting them play there. |
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Soil and stone |
Experiencing different landscapes (beaches, hills, forests, fields). |
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Learn different vocabulary, e.g. clay, soil, sand, humus, stone, fossil, river, hill, mountain, valley. |
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Soil and stone |
Experiencing different landscapes (beaches, hills, forests, fields). |
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Observe different soils in the region e.g. in a farm, wetland, and forest. |
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Soil and stone |
Experiencing different landscapes (beaches, hills, forests, fields). |
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Sketch the key features that distinguish each landscape such as plains, hills, valleys, rivers, lakes, sea. |
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Soil and stone |
Experiencing different landscapes (beaches, hills, forests, fields). |
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Go for a walk to observe and take photographs of different habitats (e.g. the types of plants which live on the hilltop compared to valley floor, marsh, or next to the river). |
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Soil and stone |
Experiencing different landscapes (beaches, hills, forests, fields). |
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Appreciate different landscapes and their various gifts e.g. in a small group draw a big picture of a certain landscape and illustrate the gifts/benefits of it for nature and/or people. Different groups appreciate different landscapes. Hear from each of the different groups and relate to the principle 'Use and Value Diversity'. |
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Soil and stone |
Experiencing different landscapes (beaches, hills, forests, fields). |
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Research how the local landscapes were formed, and how they are still changing. Children can share this with each other e.g. by a guided visualisation in which the children are all lying down with Eyes closed, and we 'zoom' back in time and then slowly visualise how our landscape was formed. |
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Soil and stone |
Experiencing different landscapes (beaches, hills, forests, fields). |
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Find out how the landscape affects what lives in each place (river vs sea vs forest etc). |
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Soil and stone |
Soil textures and soil tests |
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See, touch and smell different soils with different textures (can you work out what texture you have?): sand, silt, clay, and loam. |
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Soil and stone |
Soil textures and soil tests |
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Dig a hole to see the different layers of soil, their colour and depth (topsoil, subsoil, bedrock). |
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Soil and stone |
Soil textures and soil tests |
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Observe how different soils affect the plants which grow there - their health as well as the species composition. |
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Soil and stone |
Soil textures and soil tests |
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Do a soil touch test i.e. rub soil between your fingers - does it have big grains like sand or minuscule grains like clay, or is it soapy like silt? Roll soil into a sausage, can it stay like that (indicating clay)? Try with different soils. |
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Soil and stone |
Soil textures and soil tests |
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Test soil to find out if it's acidic or alkaline. Use a pH kit and/or do a home test e.g. add 2 spoonfuls of soil to a jar, add vinegar, does it react? If so you have alkaline soil. Add 2 spoonfuls of soil to another jar, add distilled water and baking soda - does it fizz? If so you have acidic soil. |
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Soil and stone |
Soil textures and soil tests |
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Do a soil jar test to find out what percentage is sand, silt and/or clay. Compare soil from different places. Compare with results from soil touch test. |
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Soil and stone |
Soil textures and soil tests |
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Sing a song about soil textures (e.g. "There's three different types of mineral in soil"). |
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Soil and stone |
Soil textures and soil tests |
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Find out about acidity and alkalinity in soil, how it affects plants that grow there, and how plants affect the pH of the soil (e.g. conifers make it more acidic). |
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Soil and stone |
Soil textures and soil tests |
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Compare the different properties of sand and clay (e.g. how much water and air it holds, what happens when you stand on it, which holds more nutrients etc.). |
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Soil and stone |
Indicator species |
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Observe different plants which grow spontaneously locally, investigate how/whether this relates to the soil there. |
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Soil and stone |
Indicator species |
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Identify common local plants and discuss what they can tell us about the soil conditions (e.g. rushes indicate wet, nettles indicate rich soil). |
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Soil and stone |
Indicator species |
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Experiment with changing the soil conditions to see if that affects the plants which grow there spontaneously (e.g. in a grassy area with small rushes (Juncus species) growing in a straight line this may be due to soil compaction. One could dig a section in the row and leave another area untouched. Return months later to see the changes in what plants are growing spontaneously there). |
