A Guide for Teachers: Soil Lesson Plans

Creating soil lessons plans is a good way for teachers to help their students learn more about the environment. Without taking care of our earth, including the very ground that we walk on, we cannot enjoy its beauty as the year pass. Lessons including facts about and fun activities with soil can help teach this to our children.

There are a number of objectives that are possibilities for lesson plans involving soil. One possible topic is the layers of soil on earth. To demonstrate this, students can create models of the earth using different colors of clay. Have the children form a ball with red clay using about 1/4 of a block of clay. This represents the core. Next, have them cover their red ball with an entire block of brown clay. This represents the second layer of soil in the earth. Finally, use about 1/4 of a block of green clay to cover the brown. This represents the crust, which is what we see. Cut each child's ball in half so they can see the different layers. Talk about the class about the characteristics of each layer. Have them guess, for instance, why you used red clay to create the core and green for the crust.

Another soil-related activity you can do with your students analyzes the biological life in soil. Discuss why soil is important in the animal and plant world. What animals live in soil? What animals eat soil? Then, if possible take a field trip to the playground and dig up a patch of soil. What creepy-crawlers can your class find? Discuss with the children how soil is important not only to worms and spiders, but also to humans because much of the food we eat is grown. Also discuss how soil becomes polluted and what we should do to keep our earth clean.

There are countless other activities also available for soil-related topics. Children will be amazed about how much there is to learn about something they see every day, like dirt. This can also lead to lessons about other pollution topics such as air and water. With a little innovation, teachers can prepare soil lesson plans to help our children learn to take care of the earth.