Soil, Water, and Mud… OH MY!

We have been learning about Soil in Science class this term… and this week, we took the learning outside!

We collected soil from the ground right outside our school and got ready for our first soil related experiment.

Step 1: collect soil from outside and put it in a clear plastic cup

Step 2: make predictions about what will happen right when we add water to the cup and what will happen once it sits for 24 hours

Step 3: pour the water & mix it up! (then let it sit overnight)

Step 4: record our observations

It wouldn’t be a true Science lesson if we didn’t find ways to integrate our Scientific Study of Words (aka Structured Word Inquiry). So before we even made predictions, we looked at the word <prediction>.

Right away we noticed the prefix and the suffix <-ion>. We also learned what a bound base is!

Here are the predictions we made…

What will happen when we put water in the soil cups?

Ron: The soil will be all mushy and soggy, the dirt will dissolve and turn the water brown 

Yaara: the dry soil will become wet like mud

Ella: The soil will turn into mud

Solly: It will turn into mud

Miko: The soil will move to the top of the cup 

What will happen to the cup of water and soil if we let it sit for more than 24 hours?

Ahron: The dirt will be like a sponge an absorb all the water 

Ollie: The dirt will absorb the water 

Elise: The dirt will absorb the water, but there will still be water in the cup

Abby: There will only be a little bit of water 

Galit: The soil will turn to mud

Reuven: the soil will become liquid, then mud, then just be wet soil

Raz: the soil will turn mushy

Boaz: The water will spread all around the dirt into the different parts and the soil will be mushy 

Naama: It will turn into mud 

   

We let our cups of water and soil sit overnight and then went back to see what happened!

Of course, we did another word investigation…

I was SO impressed that the students noticed the double suffix right away! We know that the <at> in observation comes from the suffix <-ate>! Ella was able to tell us that the base word means to look or to see something.

We were able to see the different layers of the soil and noticed that heavier particles sunk to the bottom of the water, while lighter bits floated to the top.

 

 

 


Reminders and Notes:
-Friday, November 4th is a 3PM Dismissal
-You can follow along with our learning on our class twitter account. We post smaller snapshots of our day on there!
-You can stay up to date on the general happenings at OJCS / OJCS Student Life by subscribing to the OJCS Student Life Blog!

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