Did you know?
A teaspoon of soil contains between 100 million and 1 billion living things.
While we can’t see most of these tiny living things in the soil. We can use a simple tool to help us focus our observations on some small things we might otherwise overlook while we study soil!
Make a Small Thing Finder by using a permanent marker to draw a small circle to a craft stick (or piece of paper)!

Then, encourage your soil scientist to explore and observe the ground closely. Try to find something—or many things—that are smaller than the circle on the small thing finder. Consider exploring in a few spots.
Ask your young scientist:
What did you notice?
What was interesting or different about exploring this way?
Was anything challenging about using your Small Thing FInder?
What was your favorite discovery?
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