In celebration of Earth Day on April 22, engage your students with this delicious and educational activity about soil structure. Students will learn about soil horizons while building an edible soil model that they can enjoy after the lesson.

Materials/Ingredients:

  • Clear plastic cups and spoons (one for each student)
  • Chocolate Rock Candy (substitute chocolate chips if you can’t find rock candy)
  • Cheerios
  • Cereal with bran flakes
  • Chocolate cake, crumbled
  • Gummy worms
  • Green sprinkles

Yummy Soil

Directions:

Have students build their models using the ingredients listed above. Talk through each layer and explain things like how the layer is formed, its soil composition, what living things reside in each layer and how they impact the soil, etc. Have students complete this worksheet (a free download) to help them remember each layer.

Recipe taken from Farmer’s Daughter.

Have something to add? We’d love to hear from you! Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.