Favorite elementary soil lessons

[Sherman Garden]

Hey folks -- 

What are your favorite elementary school lessons about soil? We'll be doing a separate composting unit, so I'm interested in lessons about soil composition, permeability, connections to plant health and other general awesomeness.

Thanks,

-- 

Christina Abuelo

School Garden Equity Catalyst

Pronouns: she/her/ella

Coordinator - (858) 210-2628

@barrio_botany

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(¸.·´ (¸.·´ Cultivating Healthy, Happy, Nature-Connected Kids

[Noel Cibulka]

Hi Christina, 

We've got several lessons for Elementary you might like! I've listed them below. If you explore our website, we also have soil lesson material for middle and high school you might find inspiration from:

The Plant - Soil Relationship: https://kidsgardening.org/resources/lesson-plans-the-plant-soil-relationship/

Soil Texture and Composition: https://kidsgardening.org/resources/lesson-plans-soil-texture-and-composition/

Fungus Among Us: https://kidsgardening.org/resources/lesson-plan-fungus-among-us/

The Captain Planet Foundation Project Hero Soil Quest is also fun! https://captainplanetfoundation.org/project-hero-soil-quest/

Warm regards,

Noel Cibulka

Educational Content Manager

She, Her, Hers

no...@kidsgardening.org

[Whitney Cohen]

Hi from Life Lab! 

Our Growing Classroom activity guide for grades 2-6 has a chapter of great lessons on soil. I’ve attached one of our favorites below, Space Travelers. It’s a really fun one where students pretend to be visiting Earth from another planet. They explore and sort soil components from samples they take, and then they try to make some of their own soil for life on Planet Zog. 

Hope that’s helpful!

Whitney

[Clary Montagne]

Hi! I have a fun soil composition activity I have incorporated into lessons to help students visualize how particle sizes vary with clay, silt, and sand, and how water travels through soil with different compositions. I can't remember where I originally found it so if anyone knows who to credit, please share!  Before this game I usually start by sharing samples of clay, silt, and sand that learners can touch, rub between their fingers, and look at with hand lenses or under a microscope.

Activity: Particle Passage

Time: 15 minutes

Group Size: 7+ participants and 1 facilitator

Space: Outdoor field or other area where participants can run between two start and finish lines.

Designate half the group as water and the other half as soil. Colorful play scarves can be a fun way to visually distinguish groups! Instruct water particle group to form a line against a fence or structure. About 20 feet away, instruct soil particle group to line up facing the water particle group. Discuss expectations about safety and body awareness.

Round 1: Sand particles

Soil particle group stands in a line with their arms fully extended horizontally, with fingertips touching their neighbors'. There should be enough space between each participant for the water particle group to duck through beneath their arms and run to the other side when the instructor says Go!

Round 2: Silt particles

Soil particle group stands in a line with their hands on their hips, arms bent, with their elbows touching their neighbors'. It is a little more challenging for the water particle group to pass through the line of soil particles when the instructor says Go!

Round 3: Clay particles

Soil particle group stands shoulder to shoulder in a line. It should be very challenging for the water particle group to pass through the line of soil particles when the instructor says Go!

Round 4: Mix it up!

Soil particle group stands in a line with various poses and distances between each person. If you know the ratios of your soil composition, the group could do some math to figure out how many of each particle size there should be to represent your soil.

An ideal loam composition is 20% clay, 40% silt, and 40% sand.

Wrap up with a group reflection. Which pose representing which particle size was easiest for the water to travel through?

How much water traveled through in each round? You could make some math connections by recording and graphing the results from each round.

An extension of this lesson could be measuring the ratios of your soil using a shaken and settled clear jar full of soil and water. Another connection could be made building erosion models and measuring how much soil is swept away by water under different conditions. 

 

Happy gardening!

Farmer Clary

Clary Montagne (she/her/hers)

School Garden Coordinator 

Blue Lake Union Elementary School District

cmon...@bluelakeschool.org

On Wednesday, September 17, 2025 at 2:44:39 PM UTC-7 Sherman Garden wrote:

[Leesa Carter]

https://herofortheplanet.org/healthysoils/

 

Leesa Carter-Jones (she/her)
President & CEO
Captain Planet Foundation

 

 

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[Sherman Garden]

Thanks for this resource, Leesa! What grade levels is this recommended for?

Please note: I often work unusual hours. Please don’t feel obligated to respond immediately if you receive this email outside of your regular working hours.

[Elaine Tholen]

HI there--remember to check in with your local Soil and Water Conservation District.  They usually have nice resources for learning about soil and experts that could be speakers, etc.  We collaborated with our local district soil scientist to run training for all of our 3rd grade teachers on soil basics so they were better able to run our 3rd grade soil unit.  

Elaine Tholen

Environment-Education-Action

 

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[Leesa Carter]

Hi – no problem! They are connected to middle school NGSS standards, but are written for 5^th – 9^th grade use.

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[Arlene Marturano]

The children's book Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin by Marguerite Henry describes how Native Americans taught America's first portrait painter how to grind soil to find powder and use bear grease as the binder to form a painting paste. Students and teachers love to make contemporary soil paint for portraits and murals. 

Kirstin Kurtz is a painter and soil scientist at Cornell Soil Lab with much art experience in making and using soil as a paint. https://www.buzzsprout.com/2373111/episodes/17587360-from-earth-to-easel-kirsten-kurtz-paints-with-soil

https://soilpainting.com/

Sincerely,

Arlene Marturano, Ph.D.

Director, South Carolina Garden-based Learning Network

Author Growing Up Gardening: Gateways to Gardening with Children

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[Daniel Barrera Ortega]

FoodPrints has an entire section of their curriculum dedicated to soil health!

I'm partial to the Root Systems and Erosion lesson, my students loved moving around soil with spray bottles and straws! 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/school-garden-network/SJ2PR19MB73438EB111FBB7A6AF6C37AFDF16A%40SJ2PR19MB7343.namprd19.prod.outlook.com.

[Elaine Makarevich]

Hi Christina!

Happy to share a link to a search on our resource database at SubjectToClimate. It's easy to filter for resource type and grade level/band for what you are looking for! Lots of great resources developed by us and even more from our trusted partners.

My personal favorite is "Life in Soil". I taught this lesson many times, and my K-2 students LOVED exploring soil through this hands-on exploratory lesson.

Have fun discovering the secrets of soil!

Best,

Elaine

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