Making Chatter Boxes about the Solar System

We used a chatter box to write questions and then record facts we have learnt!

Making a Solar System Model

Solar System Scale Model

This afternoon we made a scale model of the solar system using toilet paper.  We went right into Hannah's room! We rolled out toilet paper squares according to the chart below

Soil Layers

Today R14 came to visit Annie and learn all about soil.  We  completed a pretest about soil and found that we did not know very much about the wonderful resource, SOIL!  We stand on it everyday and grow our food in it but don't know as much about it as we should.  R16 have finished their inquiry about soil and their knowledge was great when we did our pretest.   Well done R16.  What a lot they learned.
Today though it was R14's chance to learn and inquire. We then completed a T chart about what we knew and questions we have a bout soils .  There were some rich questions asked.  We also watched videos about soil, focusing on what it is, what types of soil there are and the soil layers.  We sketched a cross section of soil and labelled the different layers.  See the diagram below to learn the layers.  Also see R16's fun photos below when they made edible soils in layers just like this.  It certainly helped them remember the order of the layers from the bottom to the top or vice versa.

Edible Soil!

I was asked today for the recipe as some of the children wanted to make this again at home.  Here is a screenshot of the layering we used.  Enjoy but beware lots of calories!

Edible Soil!

We made edible soil  so we could show the soil layers.  We made this in a clear plastic cup.  We used an an oreo cookie to show this bottom layer which is  called the bedrock.  Next we added cocopops and M&Ms to show the parent material or substratum layer.  We made chocolate mousse and then added that to show the next layer which is subsoil.  We crushed digestive biscuits (showing how weathering and pressure work to break up rocks) and added this to represent the top soil. We add organic matter (humus) last of all.  For this we used chocolate chips.  After we completed our assessments we ate it!  YUM YUM.

Observing Soil

  

We found lots things in the soil from our school garden, that it contained things like water,dead and decaying leaves, roots and bark, stones, pebbles, clay, sand, compost, sand, loam and someone found a tiny seedling and a dead bug.  Can you see how closely we are looking. We couldn't see the air though!  To see the smaller things we used a magnifying glass. What we really needed was a more powerful microscope so we could see all the microscopic fungi, bacteria, bugs and particles.  We noticed, made notes and used our observations to explain and justify our thinking.  Here is the soil sample and some of the things we found.