SOIL

What is Soil?
Soil is a mixture of living things and non-living things. Soil commonly referred to as dirt and also known to us as earth. It provides plants and animals with water, air, food and nutrients.

Soil contains living things and non-living things.
The non-living things in the soil are stones, sand, silt and clay.
Soils also contains bits of dead plants and animals.
Among the living things found in soil are earthworms and ants.

There are different types of soil. For examples, sandy soil, clay soil and garden soil.

Sandy soil is usually yellowish in colour. It has very little bits of dead plants and animals.

Clay soil is red, brown or grey. It is a soil which has a heavy concentration of clay particles.

Garden soil is black or brown in colour. It has lots of bits of dead plants and animals.









Soil is made up different layers. How do these layers look like? Below is an example of the layers formed when we mix the soil with water.

There are bits of dead plants and animals floating in the water.
Clay, silt and sand are in the middle layers.
Small stones are found at the bottom layer because they are the heaviest objects.


EXERCISE

True or False

1. Garden soil lets water to flow through well.                             [______]

2. Sandy soil does not let water to flow through easily.                [______]

3. Sandy soil lets water to flow through very well.                        [______]

4. Sandy soil holds a lot of water.                                                 [______]

5. Clay soil lets water to flow through very easily.                        [______]

6. Clay soil holds a lot of water.                                                   [______]

7. Garden soil does not allow water to flow through it.              [______]


Answer: 1.True  2.False  3.True  4.False  5.False  6.True  7.False

ANIMALS

The External Features of Animals
There are different kinds of animals living on Earth. Some of them look similar but some are different. We can identify them by their external features. The external features of an animal are the details of the animal that you can see.

For examples:

• A fish has fins and a tail. Its body is covered with scales. A fish has no legs.
• An elephant has four legs, a trunk, tusks, head and eyes. It also has big ears and body.

Grouping of Animals
We can group animals based on the external features that they share i.e. similarities in external features. Animals can be grouped in different ways, for examples:

• The lizard, snake and crocodile can be grouped together because they have scales.
• Fish, dolphin and shark can be grouped together because they have fins.
• Goat, cow, bull and deer can be grouped together because they have horns.
• Swan, parrot, bird, duck and chicken can be grouped together because they have feathers.
• Lion, baboon and highland cow can be grouped together because they have hair.
• We can also group animals according to the number of legs that they have. Animals with many legs i.e. centipede and millipede; animals with no legs i.e. snake, snail and fish; animals with two legs i.e. duck, goose and rooster; animals with four legs i.e. elephant, horse, tiger and kangaroo.
• Cat, squirrel, and koala bear can be grouped together because they have furs.
• We can also group animals according to the shape of beaks they have. Animals with long beak i.e. ibis and pelican; animals with short and hooked beak i.e. parrot and eagle; animal with flat beak i.e. ostrich.
• Crab and parrot can be grouped together because they have claws.
• Tortoise, turtle and snail can be grouped together because they have shells.
• Butterfly, bee and dragonfly can be grouped together because they have wings.

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EXERCISE

Complete the table.

BEAK

HORNS

WINGS

FUR

SCALES

	External Features	Animals with the same features
1		Sheep, Tiger, Bear, Rabbit
2		Goat, Cow, Deer, Bull
3		Snake, Lizard, Crocodile, Armadillo
4		Bird, Chicken, Ostrich, Penguin
5		Butterfly, Grasshopper, Bat, Bee

Answer:  1.Fur   2.Horns   3.Scales   4.Beak   5.Wings