4.6 Understanding Place:
Students demonstrate understanding of the relationship between their local environment and community heritage and how each shapes their lives. This is evident when students:
a. Demonstrate knowledge and history of local environment (e.g., soils, forests, watershed) and how their community relies on its environment to meet its needs (e.g., nutritional, recreational, economic, emotional well-being).

7.1 Scientific Method
Students use scientific methods to describe, investigate, explain phenomena, and raise questions in order to:
a. Ask questions about objects, organisms, and events in the world around them.

7.11 Analysis:
Students analyze and understand living and non-living systems (e.g., biological, chemical, electrical, mechanical, optical) as collections of interrelated parts and interconnected systems. This is evident when students:
a. Demonstrate and understand that systems are made of interrelated parts that influence one
another.

7.13 Organisms, Evolution, and Interdependence
Students understand the characteristics of organisms, see patterns of similarity and differences among living organisms, understand the role of evolution, and recognize the interdependence of all systems that support life. This is evident when students:
a. Describe and show examples of the interdependence of all systems that support life.

7. 15 Theories, Systems, and Forces:
Students demonstrate and understanding of the earth and its environment, the solar system and the universe in terms of the systems that characterize them, the forces that affect and shape them overtime, and the theories that currently explain their evolution. This is evident when students:
a. Identify and record evidence of change over time.
b. Identify and record interrelated parts of earth systems.

What are the characteristics of rocks?
* Some rocks are made of a single substance, but most are made of several substances.

What is soil and where does it come from?
*Students demonstrate understanding that soils have properties of color and texture and the capacity to retain water.
*Students demonstrate understanding that soils are made of many different materials and may include sand, humus, clay and gravel.
*Students demonstrate understanding that soils differ from place to place in the forest and in other places.
*Students demonstrate understanding that over time, dead plants decompose to become a part of the soil.
*Students demonstrate understanding of the interdependence of soil and plants.

How can soil affect plant growth?
*Students demonstrate understanding that soil supports the growth of many different kinds of plants and provides physical support for plants.
*Students demonstrate understanding of how soiI supports life in a local forest. What is erosion and how does it change the land?
*Students demonstrate understanding that the earth's surface changes over time due to erosion and weathering.
*Students demonstrate understanding that trees prevent erosion.

What scientific methods will the students use?
*Students will make observations, and collect and record
data.
*Students will ask questions about organisms, objects, and events in the
forest.

Lesson One:
Everybody Needs a Rock
*Pebble Pass
*Pebble Pick Up
*Sharing Circle
*Rock Treasure Hunt

Lesson Two:
*Hidden Colors
*Hard as a Rock
*Weigh In
*Sand Makers
*Testing Rocks

Lesson Three:
*What is in Soil?
*Introducing Sand, Clay, and Humus
*SoiI Soakers
*Soil Recipe
*Soil Shakes
*Soil in the Forest
*Soil Sampling

Lesson Four:
*Lie Down and Look
*Forest Foray
*Digging Deeper
*Puppet show
*The Rotten Truth
*Rotting Log Look
*Bark Beetle Investigation
*Buried Treasure
*Wiggle Worms
*As the Worm Turns
*The Wonderful Worm
*The World Beneath Your Feet

Lesson Five:
*Growing Plants in Different Soils
*Why do Plants Have Roots in Soil?
*How Plants Grow
*Uprooted Tree
*Soil in the Forest
*Forest Web of Life
*Web of Life Mandala

Lesson Six:
*Shaping the Land
*Erosion Puppet Show
*Splash
*Rock and Roll
*Swept Away
*Slipping Soil
*Erosion Hunt
*If I were a Fish

Lesson One
*observations
*journal reflections
* KWL chart
*discussion

Lesson Two
*data sheets
*observations
*investigations
*journal reflections
*KWL chart
*discussion

Lesson Three
*observations
*investigations
*poems
*discussion
*KWL chart

Lesson Four
*puppet show
*observations
*investigations
*journal reflections
*mural
*KWL chart

Lesson Five
*investigations
*observations
*journal reflections
*discussion
*web of life drawings
*KWL chart

Lesson Six
*collage
*puppet show
*experiments
*journal reflections
*discussion
*KWL chart

journal writing
rubric
drawing rubric
anecdotal notes

journal writing
rubric
drawing rubric

journal writing
rubric
drawing rubric
anecdotal notes

journal writing
rubric
drawing rubric
anecdotal notes

journal writing
rubric
drawing rubric

journal writing
rubric
drawing rubric

Final Assessment
journal writing
rubric
drawing rubric
anecdotal notes