soils, rocks and landscapes around our school

Our Science topic for Term 3 is called Beneath our Feet. In this topic we will:

  • Have opportunities to explore how natural processes and human activity shape our surroundings.
  • Develop our understanding of soils, rocks and landscapes and how they change over time through hands-on activities and  investigations.
  • Investigate factors that affect the erosion of soils.

This is a MASSIVE topic with a lot of hands on investigations and experiments which will involve using a variety of equipment and even getting a little dirty with the soil!

We began our lesson with listing as many words we could think of that related to the words soil, rock and landscape. Here is what our class came up with:

dirt,    crystal,     ruby,   hard,   shards,   sand,  diamond,   trees,   emeralds,  stone,  bumpy,  black iron,   gold,   shrubs,   silver,   oil,  sea,   coal,   opal,   fossils,   damp,   smooth,   pearls,   insects,   sapphire, uranium, titanium  boulder,   quartz,   wet,   aluminium, copper,   shells, bones, gravel,   granite,   minerals,   ore,   hills,  mountains,   grass,   soil

These have been added to our class word wall and we will continue to add these throughout the term as we learn new words and ideas.

Next we worked in small groups and were given a map of the school and 9 different photos of other soils, rocks and different landscapes that are located around the school grounds. We had to find where Mrs. Baldwin had taken each photo and answer the following questions:

  1. What does the rock or soil feel like?
  2. What colours can you see?
  3. Describe the landscape of each picture eg: slopes, hills, bumpy, vegetation etc.

Here are the photos that were taken

IMG_7858

This was a lot of fun and quite a challenge at times, particularly with finding one of the rocks. This allowed us to look closely at some of the rocks and soils that are in our local area and begin thinking about the properties and features using some describing words.

IMG_0769 IMG_0767 IMG_0774 IMG_0776 IMG_0778 IMG_0780

Our next step is to collect a soil sample and rock from another location and bring it to school. We will spend some time studying these closely and perhaps finding out what soil types and rocks we have in our local environment.

What did you enjoy most about the treasure hunt activity?

What did you find that was interesting with either a rock or soil in one of the photos?

Can you share one fact that you know about rocks, soils or landscapes?

15 thoughts on “soils, rocks and landscapes around our school

  1. Dear Mrs Baldwin😎,

    I enjoyed running around and learning about rocks.

    They were all different colours.

    the landscapes are always different.

  2. Hi miss Baldwin,
    I enjoyed going around the school trying to find lots of different places and recording them down.
    On photo 7 I liked the colour and the shape of the rock.
    Rocks are great because the come in all different shapes and sizes.

    Kind
    Regards, Alicia

  3. hey mrs B

    I thought that the treasure hunt activity was fun because we got to wonder around the school and work with friends.
    That sometimes you couldn’t really see the colours in the soil or rock.

  4. dear miss b,

    i enjoyed running around the school with Bridie

    i enjoyed doing the little kids sandpit because it felt soft

    i know that you can find them everywhere

    😃😊

  5. dear Mrs Baldwin,

    i enjoyed the treasuare hunt because it was fun and was enjoyable.
    i found the large brown rock near the spider web because it all different kinds off textures it was bumpy, sandy and a little bit smoth.
    all rocks are different

    from Sophie 😋

  6. Dear Mrs Baldwin,

    I enjoyed going around the school with Laila and finding all the things
    I liked finding the sand pit because it felt soft and it was a fun thing to do and I really enjoyed it and I would it again.

    From Bridie
    😉🙄🤓

  7. I enjoyed going hunting for the places

    on photo 9 was the hardest for me.

    plants are cool cuse they can come in a viriati of colours

  8. Dear mrs Baldwin I enjoyed most about the treasure hunt just it being tricky to find all the things in the photos.

    I found that it was all different in all the different photos.

    That every thing looks and feels different.

  9. Dear Mrs Baldwin,

    I enjoyed partnership mostly because we disagreed but always worked out what to do. I found the rocks very hard. all landscapes are very large.

    From Dylan

  10. Dear mrs baldwin
    I think that the treasure hunt was so much i wish we could do it again .

    Every landschap is different all the time.

    Rock’s or stone’s can be found in soil

  11. hi mrs baldwin
    i enjoyed most going around the school and seeing things that i haven’t seen before.
    it was really interesting because it was fun woking in teams.
    i find interesting about the soil because the things that we did last term are like compost new is really weird

  12. Dear Mrs Baldwin

    I enjoyed running around the school finding things and writing what they are.

    What I found interesting was that we have a very big rock.

    I know that all landscapes look different.

  13. HI Miss Baldwin,
    I wasn’t here for this activity but I think it would be fun. Just by looking at the pictures I knew were some of the places were but there were some I couldn’t spot. I though that some things looked like two places in the school. I know that some parts of land is man made meaning build/planted by humans but some land is naturally like it is now meaning it hasn’t been touched by humans. I wish I was at school when you did this activity.

    From Tia

  14. hello miss baldwin
    i most liked when Abby and i were in the year 6/7 garden.
    What i found interesting was what one of the rocks.
    pearls are made from one grain of sand.

    from emily

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