Curriculum Map
This map offers a visual display of the curriculum connections of the IGS soil unit. This unit can be used as a year-long theme, and can also be adapted to fulfill specific learning objectives in a variety of shorter lessons from K-5.
| Soil Curriculum Web |
Island Grown Schools Soil Unit: This unit is in Understanding by Design format, and is connected to both MA Standards and the goals of IGS. It can be used for a single lesson or a longer unit, depending on the needs of your classroom. This unit guides students in the construction and maintenance of a worm bin, and the exploration of soil, ultimately presenting the full cycle of "waste" to "resource".
(Developed by Island Grown Schools)
(Developed by Island Grown Schools)
| IGS Unit - Soil |
Essential Questions
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Enduring Understandings
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Activities
How Much is Dirt Worth?: This lesson uses an apple as a visual for students to understand how much arable land is left on earth, and the true value of "dirt"
(Shared by Utah Agriculture in the Classroom)
(Shared by Utah Agriculture in the Classroom)
| How Much is Dirt Worth/Apple as the Earth |
Make an Acre: This activity engages students in mapping out an acre, and understanding the value of our topsoil and what we can do to preserve it.
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Soils in my Food Web: This lesson offers students a lens through which they can view all the different ways we are dependent on soil in our daily lives.
(Shared by Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom)
(Shared by Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom)
| Soils in my Food Web |
Soil Food Web: This pdf image displays the food web in the soil (includes plants, fungi, bacteria, nematodes, protozoa and arthropods)
| The Soil Food Web |
What is compost?: This is a great resource for both students and teachers about compost - what it is, how to build a pile - and some fun games for students to play to familiarize themselves with this new concept!
(Shared by Garden Mosaics, www.gardenmosaics.org)
(Shared by Garden Mosaics, www.gardenmosaics.org)
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Worms: These are all fantastic resources for learning about worms, and building worm bins in your classroom.
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GAME - Decomposer Tag: This is a fantastic game that engages students in the process of decomposition through a thrilling game of tag.
| Decomposer Tag.pdf |
SONG - Dirt made my lunch: This song, by the infamous Banana Slug String Band, is a wonderful way to engage your students in the wonders of soil, and how ultimately it is responsible for everything we eat!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCeyXW64cns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCeyXW64cns
| Dirt Made my Lunch.pdf |
Resources
- Worms Eat Our Garbage; Worms eat My Garbage, by Mary Appelhof
- Project Seasons, Shelburne Farms
- PeeWee books, by Larraine Roulston
- The Worm Cafe: Mid-scale Vermicomposting of Lunchroom Wastes, by Binet Paine
This Compost by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Behold this compost! behold it well!
Perhaps every mite was once form'd part of a sick person - yet behold!
The grass of spring covers the prairies,
The bean bursts noiselessly through the mould in the garden,
The delicate spear of the onion pierces upward,
The apple-buds custer together on the apple-branches,
The resurrection of the wheat appears with pale visage out of its graves.
What chemistry!
That the winds are really infectious,
That all is clean forever and forever,
That the cool drink from the well tastes so good,
That blackberries are so flavorous and juicy,
That the fruits of the apple-orchard and the orange-orchard, that melons, grapes, peaches, plums, will none of them poison me,
That when I recline on the grass I do not catch any disease
Now I am terrified at the Earth, it is that calm and patient,
It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions,
It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such endless succession of diseased corpses,
It distils such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor,
It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts such leavings from them at last.
Behold this compost! behold it well!
Perhaps every mite was once form'd part of a sick person - yet behold!
The grass of spring covers the prairies,
The bean bursts noiselessly through the mould in the garden,
The delicate spear of the onion pierces upward,
The apple-buds custer together on the apple-branches,
The resurrection of the wheat appears with pale visage out of its graves.
What chemistry!
That the winds are really infectious,
That all is clean forever and forever,
That the cool drink from the well tastes so good,
That blackberries are so flavorous and juicy,
That the fruits of the apple-orchard and the orange-orchard, that melons, grapes, peaches, plums, will none of them poison me,
That when I recline on the grass I do not catch any disease
Now I am terrified at the Earth, it is that calm and patient,
It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions,
It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such endless succession of diseased corpses,
It distils such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor,
It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts such leavings from them at last.
