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Science Y2 – Parent Guide
interesting exhibits! Ask the children to look through their soil sample and separate out as
many different things as they can find. Allow time for this, as children may want to see
what others will have found.

4. Get the group’s attention, and list on a small portable blackboard all the things children
have found in their soil sample. This will include stones, leaves, roots, insects, etc. as well
as more unusual things like a button, piece of glass, etc. The list is usually quite
impressive. Establish that soil is a mixture of little pieces of many things.

5. If there is a clear difference in the clay content of soil samples, it may be appropriate to
ask the children to see if they can make a ball with some of their soil. This becomes a way
of identifying if there is a lot of clay or a lot of sand in the soil crumbs. Children can get
experience of both types of soil.

6. Collect a small sample of a clay soil and a sandy soil in two jam-jars, before tidying up.
Show the children how to fold the two sides of the newspaper together to make a groove
so that the soil could be tipped easily into a bucket. Collect all the soil as this can be used
for the wormery in Lesson 6.

7. Gather back together inside. Using the book Talkabout Soil Webb Fairclough, published by
Franklin Watts 1986, ISBN 086313 4777 (available in our library) look at the pictures that
show how soil comes from rock, and what its ingredients are. (The page about humus could
be kept for the following lesson.)

8. One final experiment

Take the two soil samples. Explain that clay is really very, very fine particles of rock that
can only be seen properly under a microscope. Sand particles are larger particles of rock.
This soil has more clay particles, while this soil has more sand particles. Fill up the jars
with water, screw on lids securely and shake vigorously. The children will see how
everything gets mixed up. Leave overnight and examine the next day. The soil particles
should have settled allowing the different-sized particles to be observed more clearly.

Explain too a good soil for growing crops should have a balance of clay and sand in it. If it
has too much clay, it can get waterlogged. If it has too much sand, it will dry out too easily.
(Show the relevant pictures in Talkabout Soil.)

Learning for Life (Fulfilment)

1. For the children to know what soil is composed of and to realise that soil varies from place
to place.

2. For the children to appreciate soil as one of God’s gifts to us.

3. For the children to begin to appreciate the wisdom of God in His provision of soil as the
upper material of the earth’s crust.

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