Exercises

Activity Prompt

In this exercise, the kids are learning about the creatures that live in the world beneath the soil. Supplies: Crayons, printer, click on link for downloadable colouring page file. 

Discussions: Identifying diverse native soil life (like centipedes/millipedes, pillbugs, dormant pollinators, and bees).  Find the hidden helpers. You can discuss how these different creatures act as an underground team keeping the forest healthy. How do leaves form a blanket? Are the bees buzzing? No, they are sleeping. 

Kids questions about bees: How many types of bees are in Ontario (around 400 types) and how many types keep nests underground? (Around 70 percent). Don't bees sting? Bees will never sting a human if they can help it because they can die without their stinger. A curious bee is completely harmless. Bees only sting if you step on or accidentally crush them. If you are ever stung by a bee, find the nearest grown-up right away and tell them. Most people are not allergic to bee stings at all, but it's very important to tell a grown-up. Bees are on our side. They perform very important jobs in nature and help the food we eat to grow. More details on bees @ https://blog.ontarioparks.ca/guess-how-many-bee-species-call-ontario-home/

This discussion can be explored for other bugs in the picture as well.

Downloadable image @: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11RI9xOJ4nJDoiXj-4C6Na1WRfyOmq76f/view?usp=sharing

Activity: Soil Profile and Horizons

Activity Prompt

In this exercise, the kids are learning about the soil profile. Students are supplied with a base paper along with different textured papers (sandpaper, brown felt, crumpled paper bags, torn tissue paper) and crayons. Discussion is of how the earth is like a cake, with layers, and they are going to represent that on paper. The different layers are called horizons. There are horizons O, A, E, and B, and each one has a different story to tell.

 Discussion during the activity: If you are walking through the woods, why is the O Horizon like the forest putting on a winter coat? What happens if we take off a coat that we need to wear? What sometimes happens to the creatures that live in the leaves when they get swept away too early in the Spring? If an invasive species such as jumping worms destroy the crunchy leaf layer, what happens to the moisture underneath and the soil health of a forest or a green space near your home? Can kids be superheroes in protecting the O horizon layer? Do forest-friendly shoes help protect it? 

The A Horizon: The letter A just stands for A, or primary layer where the main plant growth happens. This is where bugs, earthworms, and fungi take the broken-down bits from the O Horizon and mix them with crumbled rock. It's dark, rich, and full of life. Why do you think plant seeds choose to wake up and grow their roots into the A Horizon instead of diving straight down to the bottom?

The E Horizon: It looks like all the colour was sucked out of it! Rainwater washes all the minerals from the E horizon, which works as a giant filter. E stands for Eluviation. All the minerals wash downward through the E Horizon, and are delivered to the B horizon below.

The B Horizon: The B horizon is often a redder colour, because all the minerals, including iron, have washed down to here. The B horizon is not rock, but it the strongest horizon and it helps hold everything in place. 

Together these are called the Soil Profile.

As an alternative edible activity for Soil Profile, bring in clear cups and spoon in shredded carrots for the B layer, couscous or quinoa for the E layer, cooked black beans for the A layer, and a mixture of mix of baby spinach, arugula, and fresh blueberries for the top Organic horizon O layer, with a salad dressing that can represent the rain. 

Activity: Leave the Leaves 

Downloadable image @: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TzbEvoB9o9EzIIV2fh0bn5F5HLp_Nivv/view?usp=sharing

Activity Prompt

The O-Horizon Leaf Blanket Inspection

 Supplies: magnifying glasses, clear plastic rulers, pencils, sketchbooks. Download, print and hang the "Leave the Leaves" poster in the classroom as a reference station. Take the kids outside to a patch of trees or a garden bed. Armed with magnifying glasses, their task is to carefully peel back just the very top layer of the leaf litter.
Here they must find and sketch three distinct textures hiding under the leaves (e.g., a piece of lace-like decomposed leaf, a sprouting seed root, or a crawling pillbug).

The Rule: Before going back inside, students need to carefully pat the leaves back into place to restore the "blanket" so the soil stays moist and protected. Explain that a good researcher gently lifts up leaves to peek underneath with a magnifying glass, and then carefully pats them back down. They never break the soil crust or use tools to dig deep holes in natural areas, because the underground tunnels are delicate architectural structures built by the beneficial insects we rely upon to keep our soil healthy and to pollinate our fruits and vegetables.

About the poster: 

The Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly 

This butterfly does not fly south for the winter like monarch butterflies, the swallowtail butterfly stays here in Canada! In the autumn, the final caterpillars of the year crawl down into the fallen leaves on the forest floor. They turn into a brown, textured chrysalis (pupa) that blends in with dried leaves. Then they sleep inside their leaf blankets all winter long. When we rake, bag, or shred leaves, we accidentally destroy the sleeping butterflies!

The Bumblebee Queen

At the end of summer, the old bumblebee colony dies out naturally. Only the newly hatched queen bumblebees will survive the winter. The queen finds a quiet spot on the ground and uses her legs to dig just an inch or two into the soft soil. A thick, heavy layer of fallen leaves are essential insulation. It keeps the wind, snow, and rain from freezing the soil around her. In the spring, she wakes up and single-handedly builds a brand new bee family!

Activity: learning to identify the soil invasive species called the Jumping worm if you see one 

Download the Jumping Worm identification cards here @: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18LM75UjtXpdBQ-A3qGymLOIWwB6Q9WU2/view?usp=sharing

Activity Prompt

Jumping Worm Identification Game

Supplies: The Identification Cards (see download) 3 blindfolds or sleep masks and three scarves, a red one, a white one and a pink one. Three tables arranged at the front.

Six volunteers. Three go behind a partition and choose a scarf colour and stay there while the 3 volunteers wait with their blindfolds on. The three who have chosen a scarf come to stand on the other side of the table.  The other students may offer prompts as well, using their ID cards. 

Teacher: So I understand some of you have discovered mysterious worms living in your garden and you're not sure if they are helpful garden worms or invasive jumping worms. I guess you would like to identify them, but our friends here are wearing blindfolds. Can you answer a few questions please? They are going to ask you a few things they learned from the cards. 

Questions that the teacher or class can prompt as well: Does the worm have a band that is white, red or pink? Does it wiggle quite a bit? It could be a red wiggler. Does it seem to really thrash around and it's hard not to drop it on the ground? Probably a jumping worm. Does the soil around the worm look healthy or like coffee grounds? 

Finally they take off their blindfolds and pretend the scarves are worms. "We should put this jumping worm in a plastic ziplock bag immediately and into the trash, but remember to take a photo first. That way you can report it and upload the photo to iNaturalist app."

Activity: Uploading things to iNaturalist app

Download link to iNaturalist QR code for printing @: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k-20EEjpLY34AjOq_HNe525UG_1mKd5t/view?usp=sharing

Activity Prompt

This Activity is Done Outdoors: The class moves outside to a schoolyard garden bed or a patch of leaf litter. Ideally the teacher has led them in how to put iNaturalist app on their phone, but some won't be able to do that.

Spotting: The students fan out in groups. Their mission is to scan the surface of the soil and under leaves for any soil critter, helpful earthworm, or unique coffee-ground casting textures.

Calling in the Photographer: In case only the teacher has a phone with iNaturalist on it, they will have to call in the "photographer." As a note, when a group finds something, they remember their "Surface Only" protocol—they do not touch it or dig. Instead, they call out: "Photograph needed over here!"

The Submission: The teacher brings the phone over. The students advise the teacher on the best angle to capture the creature's features. The teacher shares with them the process of clicking "Observe" (the camera icon) in the app, snaps the photo, and taps "What did you see?" to let the app suggest an identification. The group votes on the closest and most probable match before the teacher hits Submit. If they think they have seen a jumping worm, iNaturalist sometimes classifies these as "Snake worms" because of its serpentine movements and so they should look at this category as well. 

Each group must submit at least one photo of something they found, with the date and location.

Download the pledges for signing in class @: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17H74WqdcoKi6IsUPvN_6oSrxnxMv2YsF/view?usp=sharing

Download the Forest Friendly Shoes Pledge image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LYqFXChDt4RHEjZNVIYp34gAuceSFdqY/view?usp=sharing

Download the Healthy Soil Guardians image here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kGfjpCvOTwDK82RZFQJmbrwFj-uMoWyg/view?usp=sharing