Healthy soil (non-statutory Climate Change & Sustainability)
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can describe that soil contains water and nutrients for plants and that the climate can affect these.
Key learning points
- The weather describes outside conditions over a few weeks and the climate describes conditions over many years.
- Earth’s climate is gradually changing. The climate is getting warmer more quickly now than a hundred years ago.
- Changes in the climate can affect how much water, nutrients and air are in soil and how well plants can grow.
- Too much rain (flooding) or not enough rain can affect how well crops grow.
- If soil is too wet or dry this can affect how well animals help mix soil and break down organic matter to add nutrients.
Keywords
Weather - Weather is rain, wind, sun or other conditions you get at a particular time or place.
Climate - Climate is weather patterns over many years.
Soil - Soil is ground up rock mixed up with plant and animal remains.
Nutrient - A nutrient is any substance that plants or animals need in order to live and grow.
Flooding - Flooding is the covering or submerging of normally dry land with a large amount of water.
Common misconception
Children may be confused by the difference between the words weather and climate.
By identifying types of weather in the early part of the lesson, you can then help pupils to understand climate by discussing how typical types of weather remain over a long period.
Teacher tip
Use the countries your children come from to get some personal experience of the weather and climate these countries have to engage all the learners.
Equipment
No additional equipment needed.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Rain, sun, wind, snow, hail stones, fog, thunder and lightning are all types of ...
Q2.Which of these are types of soil?
Q3.Which of these does soil provide?
Q4.Which of these processes helps soils to form?
Q5.How long does it take for soils to form?
Q6.What is it called if we have too much rain that doesn't drain away leaving a large amount of land covered in lots of water?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which options below are examples of types of weather?
Q2.In what way is Earth’s climate gradually changing?
Q3.Climate describes weather conditions over ...
Q4.What do changes in the climate affect?
Q5.Flooding or not enough rain can affect how well crops grow. What are crops?
Q6.Which of these animals in the soil may be affected if soil is either too wet or dry?
To help you plan your 3 science lesson on: Healthy soil (non-statutory Climate Change & Sustainability), download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 3 science lesson on: Healthy soil (non-statutory Climate Change & Sustainability), download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 science lessons from the Rocks and soils unit, dive into the full primary science curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.