Emma Ocker

ELED 3221

Sorting Soil
Elementary Science
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Big Idea: The big idea of this lesson is to show that there are different types of soil on the Earth
and that those different types of soil have qualities that make them better for different
environments.

Grade Level: 1st grade

Rationale: We are teaching this content because the students need the basic knowledge of what
the Earth is made up of before they go more into lessons on minerals and rocks. Students are
learning this material so they can be aware of what makes up the Earth. This is important for
students to learn because everyday they come across soil types whether they are in a park, on a
playground, on a farm, or near a construction site. It connects to their lives because soil is the
basic foundation of the first layer of the Earth, and since they can easily observe this in their
everyday lives, they can build their knowledge upon this.

NC Essential Standard(s): 1.E.2.1- Summarize the physical properties of Earth materials,

including rocks, minerals, soils and water that make them useful in different ways.

Next Generation Science Standard(s):

K-PS3-1. Make observations to determine the effect of sunlight on Earths surface.
[Clarification Statement: Examples of Earths surface could include sand, soil,
rocks, and water.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment of temperature is limited
to relative measures such as warmer/cooler.]
Instructional Objective: What are the properties of soil? Students will be able to tell the
difference between three different types of soil as well as identify their properties. Students will
be able use this knowledge to further identify properties of soil and where they can be found.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills: Students should have a basic knowledge of what soil is to
be successful in this lesson. The students should also know that the Earth is made up of soil and
soil is everywhere. The teacher needs to have background knowledge of their students cultural
background to ensure that the teacher doesnt expect students who have never seen soil to know
exactly what it is if they arent exposed to it at home. The teacher also needs to have background
knowledge on soil and be able to explain the concept and be prepared for any exploratory
questions the students may have.

Materials:
 18-20 post-it notes
3 small bowls of clay soil
3 small bowls of topsoil
3 small bowls of sandy soil
18 hand lens
18 copies of comparing soil chart
18 pieces of paper for KWL chart
18 scissors
3 packs of colored pencils

Source of your lesson: This lesson came from my classroom teachers original plan for the
lesson that day. Her lesson was more direct, so I took the standard and main ideas from my
teachers lesson to create a 5e lesson.

Estimated Time: 30-40 minutes.

Accommodation for Special Needs/different learning styles: For students with special needs
(physical and emotional), they will be paired up with a student that likes to help in class or has
leadership qualities. Students with different learning styles will enjoy this activity because there
is hands-on activities, activities where they can talk with classmates and teacher, and a paper
activity if they did not want to orally speak. For ESL students, teacher will individually talk with
those students to explain the activity and ensure the student knows what to do. The teacher cn
also check in often with these ESL to make sure they are on task and know what they are doing.
For students who may be more visual learners, the teacher can display the activity directions on
the board.

Safety considerations: Students will be divided into three groups of six so there is not too many
students at one station. Teacher will walk around and monitor to ensure students are staying safe.
Emma Ocker
ELED 3221
______________________________________________________________________________

Content and Strategies (Procedure)

In your procedure, be sure to include all of the following 5 Es. Your procedure should be
detailed enough for a colleague to follow. Additionally, I expect you to include possible
questions and anticipated student responses to your questions for each section.

Engage: Students will be engaged by having post-it notes on their desk for them. There will be a
poster on the board with the word SOIL drawn and colored in the middle of the poster. The
teacher will direct the students to work within their groups to come up with up 5-6 properties or
ideas they have about soil. Students will work with their group to determine 5-6 characteristics of
soil, and then go up and put them on the poster that says SOIL. To open up the conversation,
teacher can ask students What do you think soil is? or Where have you seen soil?.

Explore: Concrete experience that the students need to have is to recognize what soil is and
know that there are different types of soil. The teacher will have three stations set up in the
classroom. At each station, there is 3 small bowls of different soils; clay soil, topsoil, sandy soil.
There will be 6 hand lens at each station for the students to use. There will also be a piece of
paper at each station for the students to use when they take notes. *This eliminates waste of time
to have students make the table so they can spend more time exploring. This chart is found at the
bottom of lesson.* Students will pick one person in their group (preferably a student who is a
good writer) to be the note-taker.. At their station, the teacher will tell the students that there are
three different types of soil and their names. The teacher will then ask the students What do you
see in these three different bowls of soil?, What are some differences between the different
types of soil you see?, How does each soil look?, How does each soil smell?. The teacher
allows the students to make observations about the different types of soils and then asks them the
question, If you squeeze the soil, what does each soil do?. Students are to be making sure their
observations are being recorded on the table they are given. Teacher will allow students about 5-
7 minutes to explore and make their observations about the different types of soil.

Explanation: The class will come together to have a class discussion. The teacher will ask
students What did you observe? and let students give their observations. Meanwhile, the
teacher will have chart up on smartboard in same layout as the paper given to students in explore
phase. The teacher will be writing in what the students say so they can see their observations
written on the board. If students are having trouble telling what they observed, teacher can ask
questions like, Why do you think topsoil felt moist?, What happened when you squeezed a
specific soil?, What soil seemed to feel like it had water in it? , Why did it feel this way?.
Teacher will facilitate conversation to students explore their observations of the soil and give
explanations for why they thought that. Teacher will dig deeper for students to use answers that
involve the soils texture or whether it felt like it had water in it or not. Some vocabulary words
the teacher may pull in would be soil, ground, together, topsoil, clay soil, sandy soil, Earth,
ground layer, tiny rocks, natural resource.
Elaborate: Teacher will ask students questions to question them on where they think they would
find this type of soil at. There will be 3 pieces of paper on the mat in the front of the classroom.
On each paper, there will be three different pictures/locations. One will be a farm, one will be a
riverbank, and one will be a desert. Students will then work within their groups to decide where
they think each of their bowls of soil will need to go. Students will select one person in their
group to take their bowl and place it under whichever location they think they would find that
soil. After there are 9 total bowls of soil placed under the pictures, the teacher will ask questions
to question their reasoning. Some questions may be Whoever put the topsoil under the farm, can
you explain why you thought it would go there?, Can someone tell me where they put their
clay soil at? Why?. This would allow students to apply what they just learned and explain their
reasoning skills.

Evaluate: The teacher will instruct the students to make a KWL chart. The students would be
supplied with a piece of paper for each student as well as colored pencils to share with their
table. There will also be scissors at each table for the students to use and share if need be. The
teacher would instruct the students to fold the paper hotdog style. Then, the students would
need to make three cuts on half of that paper to make a 3-fold paper. *Students have prior
experience making these so it should be a swift process.* The teacher will then ask students to
create this KWL chart. On top of the first fold is the K, which stands for what you know. On the
second fold is the W, which stands for what you want to know, and the L stands for what you
learned. Students can write their answers under the fold, and for students who are unable to
write, they are instructed to draw a picture. If there is time, the teacher will allow the students to
color their pictures of their 3-fold paper. These would be collected just for the teacher to look at
what the students learned and what they want to learn so the teacher can use that for next day of
planning. After the teacher reviews the 3-folds, the teacher can give it back to the students so
they can keep it as a reference or take it home to show their parents what they learned if they
would like. Other students work can also be put up on the student-work wall to be displayed.
This would be an informal assignment just based on completion.

Closure: Teacher would close lesson by revising the different types of soil. The teacher will
explain how topsoil is great for plants, for holding water, for building things like clay pots and
bricks. Teacher can also discuss since topsoil is perfect for plants, that means topsoil also helps
humans and animals because humans and animals eat plants. Teacher will have this discussion
with students and pull in their opinions by asking questions like, What do you think topsoil is
good for?, What kinds of things can we make with soil?, Where do you see soil in everyday
life?, What can we make out of different types of soil?.

**chart students use in explore phase to take observation notes**

Names:____________________________________________________

Comparing Soil

topsoil sandy soil clay soil

Examples of pictures shown on front mat for students

3-fold example:
 K W L
Under flaps would be

drawing/text drawing/text drawing/text

of what they of what they of what they
know want to know learned