LET’S GET HANDS ON AT ECO STOP #4

‘Sensory Soil’ gives children the opportunity and excitement of getting their hands dirty while learning at the same time and engaging one or more of their senses: touch, sight, smell, hearing, or taste.

‘Sensory Soil’ shows the essential importance of soil in our daily life. The soil underneath our feet is vital in keeping our landscapes healthy and our communities safe while supporting everything from the food we eat to the water we drink.

Sensory Soil play may be a little messy but encourages children to explore the activity freely and with few restrictions. Allowing children’s senses to investigate, explore and learn from the soil samples.

Take a good look and ask these questions for inquisitive little minds:

What do you see?

What does it feel like?

What does it smell like?

Can you see any creatures?

Important facts about soil include:

• Different soils will feel different. If soil is made from sand (gritty), silt (smooth) and clay (sticky) and different soils have different amounts of each in them.
• Soil is made up of Sand, Silt and Clay which are different sized rock particles and organic matter.

         Sand       =       0.05mm – 2.0mm        

         Silt          =       0.002mm – 0.05mm

         Clay        =       less than 0.002mm

• Organic Matter is decomposing/rotting plants and animals
• The darkness in soil is created by the organic matter, or Humus, present in the soil. This is long chained carbon molecules and the darker the soil the more carbon it is holding.
• Soils are an amazing carbon sink and we need to ensure the carbon remains in our soils and doesn’t get released to our atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
• It’s all about our soil sign at entrance of eco garden
• Everything we eat comes from soil
• “To forget how to dig the earth and tend to the soil is to forget ourselves” Gandhi quote on arch
• There are literally billions of microbes in each handful of healthy soil.

Research is increasingly revealing a relationship between the health of our soils, the quality of the food grown in these soils, and ultimately human health.