Soil Layers

This week in Science we are teaching about earth materials and products that come from the soil.  This activity was great for my kids because it was hands on.  We discussed each layer of soil and the composition of that layer as we added layers to our cup.  Afterwards, I had them describe the layers to me as a formative assessment.  I have attached a video below of one of my sweet kids explaining her soil cup!

We used marshmallows for the bedrock, because they are chunkier.  Cheerios served as our subsoil.  The children left some whole and crumbled some near the top of the layer.  They used chocolate rice crispies for the topsoil and mixed some mini m&ms in for the humus.  They topped it off with gummi worms!

I expect that they will remember the soil layers and their compositions better after completing this activity.