Soil Demonstration

My teammate, Mrs. Timms, did a demonstration for all of first grade last week over the attributes of soil. She started with an empty container and asked the students what was in it. At first they said "nothing" but then some said "air." She then added large balls and then marbles to demonstrate that there are large and small particles in soil. She then asked what was between the particles and the students said "space" and "gaps." She explained that was still air in the gaps. She explained that this could also be called "pores" in soil. She then had the students make predictions about what it would look like if she added water to the container. After the predictions, she added the water and discussed how the water fills the gaps where the air had been.