Soiled Again!!

Promise, this is the last time we soil you with soil!! For real!!! But we really did think you would want to hear all about how well or MESSY our soil lessons went after using our new super, duper Soil and Rocks unit!

Thanks Cristy for making an awesome flip chart for the active board so the kiddos could develop a plan for the best way to learn about soil! Of course they decided that finding soil around the school was the best way to learn about soil!! WOOHOO!

What next? We thought the kiddos should also tell us what tools we would need and the procedures we should follow! Let's just say our Kinders are funny little people and smart too!

They told us we would need shovels and buckets to collect the soil. We told them we didn't have enough at school and they told us they would bring plenty! So what did we do???

Of course we waited until the next day, when everyone brought buckets and shovels to collect soil! Yep! You knew it already! Only one person brought a shovel and one  brought a bucket!

So we talked with the kiddos about a new plan for collecting soil! After pulling TEETH and pulling out some of our own HAIR, the kiddos finally came up with using bags to put the soil in and with a LITTLE (I mean a TON) of guidance they came up with using spoons to dig up the soil!!

The kiddos told us each pair needed 2 samples. We told the kiddos to pick a partner who could help them or who they could help and get busy collecting.

It was so awesome watching and listening to the Mini-Scientists rationalize why they needed 2 bags or why they should not put both samples in the same bag.

After successfully collecting soils samples or PLAYING in the dirt for 30 minutes, our friends were ready to get busy! Our little scientists used a magnifying glass to observe and compare 2 soil types!!

They had a blast!!!

The next day, we hypothesized about which type of soil would best grow seeds! The kids worked in teams to place soil in a cup, then add seeds, more soil, and water. When finished they author wrote about what they saw, they illustrator drew the picture of their soil with a pencil, finally the artist colored the picture. We will observe and record about the samples again on Monday!

The kids think the loamy (dark/moist soil) will best grow seeds!! We will SEE tomorrow if anything happened. Please, don't let our seeds be too old!! Please, I really hope something has grown!!!

What next???
Rockin' with Rocks I guess!!

Have a great week!!