Sampling soils

Teacher preparation - Collect two buckets of soil from two different locations. Put the students into teams. Each team takes a cup of soil and tips the contents onto a piece of large butchers paper. In each corner of the paper write - plants, animals, soil, other. Students use tweezers, paintbrushes and magnifiers to carefully examine their soil sample and move their findings into one of the four corners. Record their findings on the worksheet. Gather students together to conclude the activity by sharing their findings.