Lesson Plan – Me and Dirt
Grade Three:
Curriculum Connections: Soils in the Environment
Specific Learning Outcomes:
3-4-02 Identify and describe various components within a sample of
soil from the local environment
Inquiry: What is soil? What does it provide for animals, plants and
people? How is soil alive?
How can we take care of soil and make it healthy and keep it alive?
What will happen if we continue to use soil without proper disposal of
waste, use of fertilizers, insecticides and other chemicals?
Indicators:
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Introduce the term soil
Students will identify the uses of soil
Students will identify soil color, texture and smell
Students will identify living organisms in the soil
Students will become familiar with the term organic
Materials Needed:
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Plastic containers
Masking tape
Fieldwork clothes (hat, boots, water bottle, sunglasses, pencil, notepad, (made from
cardboard and newsprint paper in the shape of small shovel), garden gloves
Spoons or digging tools (trowels)
Plastic lids , trays, aluminum pie plates
Sieves
Lab clothes (old paint shirt, safety glasses, plastic gloves, notepad and pencil)
Book called, Different Kinds Of Soils, by Molly Aloian, Crabtree Publishing
Company, 2010.
Activity:
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Instructor divides students into small groups.
Each group selects a recorder and a presenter.
Students share with group, jobs they do at home/school to help out. (e.g./make bed,
clean up toy room, set table, keep desk clean, put books away).
Look for similarities; share with the class their role at home/school.
Presenter shares groups’ ideas with the class.
Instructor introduces the topic of studying the role of soil
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Students investigate their classroom to find dirt/soil.
Give each student a small piece of white paper.
Students will wipe the paper on the floor.
Have students place clumps of dirt into a plastic container.
Label classroom sample with word or picture. (Dirt)
Explain to students that they are soil scientists, whose job it is to discover the role soil
plays in our lives.
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Equip students with fieldwork clothes, (hats, jeans, sunglasses, boots, shovels,
spoons, water bottles, notepad and pencil.
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Students go outside to collect soil samples from playground and surrounding areas.
(school yard, front yard, flower beds)
Encourage students to dig gently, because soil is alive and houses many living
organisms.
Encourage students to collect more than one sample. (3)
Have students dig one sample of soil from approximately 10 cm. below the surface.
Take sample and place in a plastic container.
Number each different sample (e.g. #1, #2, #3)
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Have students return to class and sieve and spread each sample onto a flat surface (i.e.
tray, plastic lid, paper
Have students use a magnifying glass to observe the soil. If they locate living
organisms in the soil carefully transfer to plastic containers.
Have students spray each soil sample with water.
Have student’s record observations.
Instructor reads, Different Kinds Of Soils, by Molly Aloian, Crabtree Publishing
Company, 2010.
Discuss with students the different compositions and textures of soils. E.g. clay,
sand, silt
Discuss how soil provides habitats for many animals. (provides food and water for
both animals and plants)
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Have students list animals that live in the soil habitat.(worms, ants, beetles, gophers,
rabbits, foxes
Distribute student handout, Soil Web of Life
Questions:
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How are the soils different up close?
What range of colours do you see?
How does the soil feel? What does it smell like?
Have students make a list of differences between the soils they observed inside the
classroom with the soil they collected outside.
Students then circulate to observe differences in other groups
Carefully return soil samples to its natural environment.
Extension:
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Students return to groups and discuss the role of soil. Just like people have jobs to
play at home, work, in school, so does soil.
Students share ideas about their jobs at home with the class.
Instructor reminds students how soil stimulates crops and gardens to provide food,
homes for animals and people (many 3rd world countries live in dirt homes and
provide roadways connecting us as a global community.
Discuss with students how we can protect the soil environment. How do people
impact the soil ecosystem?
Art – George Seurat
Pointism
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Draw the shape of the province of Manitoba on a piece of large construction
Use different materials to form dots to make a picture of a landscape
demonstrating the types, textures (particle size) and components of soil in the
area. e.g end of a nail, end of a plastic bottle cap, button, straw, tacks, brass
fasteners, pencils