Let's Dig Into Soil

🪴 Discover the Wonders of Soil: An Engaging Resource for Your Classroom! 

Soil might seem like just “dirt” to some, but in reality, it’s a fascinating and vital component of our ecosystem. 

🪨 Let's Dig Into Some Activities!

Learning is best when it is hands-on! Students will love exploring soil through a variety of experiments. Here are a sample of my favorite activities to complete with students:

🪨 Scavenger Hunt and Observation Logs 

Students will participate in a soil scavenger hunt, where they look for different types of soil around the schoolyard or local area. Observation logs are provided to record their findings, encouraging them to think critically about how soil varies in different environments and what factors contribute to these differences. 

🪨 Examine Soil 

One of the favorite activities is having the students examine a cup of soil using magnifying lenses and tweezers to identify its various components, such as pebbles, twigs, and tiny insects. 

🪨 Shaking It Up

Another experiment has students shaking small pebbles in a jar to simulate how rocks gradually break down into smaller particles, becoming part of the soil over time. 

🪨 Create a Soil Profile

Using a layered jar model, students will create their own soil profile by adding different materials such as sand, clay, and organic matter to observe how soil layers settle over time. This activity provides a visual and hands-on approach to understanding soil horizons. 

🪨 Sorting and Classifying Activities

Students sort soil samples based on their composition - identifying elements like sand, silt, clay, and organic matter. These activities help students better understand the diversity of soil types and how each type supports different kinds of plant life. 

🪴Soil Resource For Teachers

Understanding soil is essential for young learners, and that’s why I have created a comprehensive resource that makes exploring soil both educational and fun! This resource dives deep into the composition of soil, what it’s made of, and how each part contributes to its formation and health. 

Soil Layers, Types of Soil, Formation, Properties, Erosion Activities & Slides

$11.00

The soil resource is packed with engaging materials that help students get hands-on with their learning. Here's what you can expect: 

• Interactive Slides: These visually appealing and interactive slides guide students through the basics of soil composition, helping them understand the differences between organic and inorganic materials. The slides include questions and prompts that encourage class discussions, making the learning experience collaborative and engaging.
• Hands-On Experiments: Learning should be an active experience! The engaging experiments encourage curiosity and make science tangible. 
• Engaging Student Activities: From sorting soil samples to creating a soil profile, these activities are crafted to help students connect with the material on a deeper level. They are designed to foster critical thinking and a love for science.

🪴Why Choose This Resource? 

• Aligned with Curriculum Standards: This resource is specifically tailored for grade three science standards, ensuring that it meets educational requirements while being engaging and fun. 
• Visually Appealing and Easy to Use: With engaging graphics and a user-friendly layout, this resource is simple to navigate for both teachers and students. The clear instructions and organized content help save time and make teaching soil science a breeze. 
• Complete and Ready to Use: Everything you need to teach about soil is right here—no need to spend extra time preparing materials. Just download, print, or project, and you're all set!

By using this soil resource, your students will not only learn about the physical properties of soil but also develop an appreciation for its importance in our ecosystem. They’ll understand how soil supports plant growth, contributes to the water cycle, and serves as a habitat for countless organisms. The interactive elements of the resource will encourage them to ask questions, think critically, and explore the natural world around them.

End of Summer Sale!

Last sale of the summer! One day sale on August 21st! All of my products are up to 25% off. Use the promo code BTSBonus18.

Happy shopping!

TPT Sale!

FYI!

In appreciation of teachers, my entire site will be on sale on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Visit my store for year-end deal.

Rotating Banner

Playing today! Thrilled with my new rotating banner for my TPT store!

Persuasive Texts In Readers' Workshop

My new unit of study, Persuasive Texts In Readers' Workshop, has been posted to my TPT store. Post a comment on my blog or Facebook page to receive a sample freebie.

Persuade

Upcoming! My Readers' Workshop unit, Persuade, will be uploaded to my TPT store this week.

Students have opinions and often unabashedly share their thoughts with others. This unit of study moves students from an introspective look at their identity to a shift to communitarian awareness. Students explore the persuasive techniques for advocating a position, selling a product, and inciting action. The unit of study moves from analyzing multimedia, to exploring social movements, and culminating in an engagement in activism in order to broaden an intra-cultural perspective, increase empathy for others, and dispel stereotypes.

The unit of the study has 13 sessions Each big idea, or session, has the following:

•  Session Synopsis
• Anchor Chart(s)
• Word Cards
• Purposeful Task
• Response Prompt

Interested? Post a comment with your contact information and I will send you a freebie sample!

Rocks and Minerals

Whew! Uploaded Rocks and Minerals Anchor Charts and Word Wall to my TPT store today. My students have enjoyed sorting and classifying rocks and minerals. They enjoyed testing the hardness of minerals and determining if Moh's Scale of Hardness is correct.

The Rocks and Minerals Anchor Charts and Word Wall helped students grasp new vocabulary and visualize concepts. The Word Wall cards assisted in composing responses, as well as sorting activities.

Biographies

Biography means "writing about life." In my newest unit of study entitled Biographies, readers will apply their knowledge about reading narratives, and apply these understandings to a different structure called narrative nonfiction. Readers will read to learn not only about the significant character, but also the group of people that person represents and the groups of people that person impacted. That is, readers read biographies not only to learn about specific famous figures, but also to learn about the world in which they live and to extract life lessons. 

The unit is divided into three bends: 

1. Connect their knowledge of fictional story structures to focus on the deep comprehension and synthesis of story elements of narrative nonfiction.
2. Examine the unifying idea or message behind a life story, learning that a biography is often a commentary on society at large. 
3. Apply their understandings about biographies to ease them into understanding the structures and patterns of other forms of narrative nonfiction. 

The primary goal of this unit of study is to help students become stronger readers. The main objective is not to learn content, but rather to learn how to read the genre of biography. Reading skills, rather than the details of a remarkable person’s life, are the emphasis. Readers will use story grammar to determine importance, to synthesize, and to analyze critically across long stretches of text, ultimately growing theories about them.

Throughout the twelve sessions, readers develop the ability to find connections, explain the meaning of unexpected actions, and make arguments about the significance of the person's accomplishments or life activities.  

I hope you enjoy the study of Biographies as much as my students!

Procedural Texts in Readers' Workshop

Students love to make, build, and design things. A study of procedural texts allows student to explore different types of procedural texts: recipes, experiments, and rules, and heighten their desire to experiment and create! 

Students examine the big ideas of procedural texts. Attend to the text elements common among procedural tasks:

• Gather details necessary to understand the task. 
• Analyze how the organization impacts the reader’s ability to understand and follow the text.  
• Recognize that word choice (adverbial phrases, adjectives, and action verbs) enhances comprehension.  
• Notice how the author conveys the common purpose among procedural texts. 

Most importantly, students will develop skills and strategies to enhance reading and comprehension. Students will explore cause-and-effect, sequence, language cues and conventions, visualization, determining importance, and synthesis. 

Word Work

Due to requests, I have posted my Word Work schedule and task cards on my TPT store.The Word Work Weekly Menu resource features a schedule of tasks which allow experimentation with spelling patterns. By playing with vowel patterns, word families, prefixes, suffixes, and so on, students hone their knowledge of words and increase their writing skills. 

The Word Work Menu outlines a variety of quick, fun tasks to be completed individually and cooperatively. The resource includes:

•  A daily schedule which outlines the tasks, The schedule outlines tasks which helps students actualize the spelling pattern in a variety of contexts: spelling,vocabulary, writing, and reading.
• Word Work Menu task cards which describe the activities. 
• Word Word Writing Tools task cards which suggest alternative tools, such as stamps, stencils, letter sponges, etc. to complete the task cards.

Historical Fiction

Finally! I have finished compiling my Historical Fiction unit of study. As part of Reader's Workshop, this resource is organized around twelve big ideas of historical fiction. Each big idea is developed in the resource to include the following:

• Session Synopsis - teachers guide learning through a mini-lesson based on Lucy Calkins' work
• Anchor Chart - students document their learning through construction of referent material
• Purposeful Task - students delve into their reading to deepen understanding of the story, the historical context, and their own lives
• Response Prompt - students complete a quick write to reflect on their noticings and wonderings.

Through mentor texts, the teacher models thinking deeply about the text. Students apply these skills when reading their self-selected historical fiction novel. This resources aims to foster the role that historical fiction plays in forming connections with the past. By relating historical events to people who were there, real or imaginary, readers are provided a deeper understanding of that period. 

Enjoy!

Reading Rotation Board

Finally!
I have uploaded my Reading Rotation Board to my TPT store.

The reading rotation, which spells READ, engages students in reading, comprehending texts, talking with peers to increase understanding, responding to reading, and analyzing read material. Students attend to rotation during the independent work of the reading block. Bins with coordinating icons and letters are used to store rotation materials.

The rotation follows the word READ as an acronym. Students are divided into 4 groups as they rotate through the four rotations.

R: Read (Read just-right books in pairs or small groups to increase fluency)

E: Examine Text (Analyze text and apply comprehension strategies)
A: Attack Words (Examine unfamiliar words and enhance ability to decode and use new vocabulary)
D: Discuss The Text (Engage in purposeful dialogue with peers and/or teacher)

Writing Rotation Board

Great news!

I have uploaded my Writing Rotation to my TPT Store!

The writing rotation, which spells WRITE, engages students in writing, talking about writing, responding to writing ,and analyzing texts. 

The rotation uses the word WRITE as an acronym. Following a mini-lesson, all students begin with the W (Write) rotation in which they write for a sustained time with focus and stamina. Then I divide my class into 4 groups and they rotate throughout the workshop.

W: Write (with stamina and focus)

R: Read To Others

I: Interesting Words

T: Text Think

E: Examine Mentor Texts

This format allows alignment with the writing curricular outcomes, guided writing, strategy lessons, 1:1 conferences with goal development, small group discussions, and self-directed writing and activities. It facilitates differentiation based on ability and meets the individual needs and goals of my learners while providing purposeful rotational activities. Best of all, at the end of each week, I have sufficient evidence to help plan subsequent strategy lessons, help set individual goals with students, and to determine groupings for the following week.

The cards were designed to look great whether printed in colour or in grayscale.

This is a growing bundle. Additional rotation cards will be added and available to purchasers at no additional cost.