Introductory techniques

Use a worm puppet (a piece of string, wool or anything flexible and thin) or ask pupils to be a wiggly worm themselves to explore a space and share what can be seen from a worm’s perspective with their bellies on the floor.

Discuss where worms are found and what features they might find in their (micro) environment.

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Soil and slopes fieldwork

Give pupils small sieves and let them sift soil samples outdoors to find rocks, roots, insects, leaves, etc. Pupils can classify and discuss what they found. Discuss with pupils the different ingredients that soil is made up from.

Use different soils to make marks on a piece of paper, collecting as many different colours as possible. You could create some ‘soil paint’ but adding a little water to soil and using it to make a picture. If possible, have a few different soil types (sandy, clay, loam, pebble filled etc.). Discuss with pupils whether some are better than others for painting and whether all soils are the same.

Give pupils a brown section of a colour paint chart and ask them to find as many of the similar colours as possible with the different soils.

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The Geographical Association (GA) has worked closely with the Field Studies Council (FSC) to develop these resources.