What Are the Four Soil Types?

When exploring soil types with your students, chances are you’ll be investigating the Big 4: sand, silt, loam and clay. Each of these soil types has specific properties and, as a result, is suited for different purposes.

This set of reading passages has been designed to explain the properties and uses of the four main soil types to students in age-appropriate language. The resource download contains the following for each soil type (sand, silt, loam, clay):

• Reading passage
• 4 x questions (3 x multiple choice, 1 x short response)
• Answer key

Multiple Applications for These Types of Soil Worksheets

In addition to independent student work time, why not use this worksheet as a:

• Whole-class activity (via smartboard)
• Collaborative group task
• Homework activity
• Summative assessment

Choose the delivery method that best suits your students and their learning needs. Some students may be perfectly capable of completing the task independently, while others may benefit from reading the passage in a small group with targeted adult support.

Download to Access These Soil Worksheets

Use the dropdown menu to access the editable Google Slides or quick-print PDF version of this resource.

As this resource contains an answer sheet, we recommend printing one copy of the entire file, then removing the student pages for photocopying. 

Please consider printing these worksheets double-sided for sustainability purposes. Alternatively, project each passage onto your interactive whiteboard and work through the questions as a class for a paperless lesson!

This resource was created by Kaitlyn Blevins, a teacher in Georgia and a Teach Starter collaborator.

Click below for more resources to complement your lessons on soil types!

teaching resource

Properties of Soil Task Cards

Review the properties of the most common soil types with this set of 24 multiple-choice task cards.

teaching resource

Water Retention in Soils – Science Experiment

Explore the water retention capabilities of sand, silt, loam and clay with this science experiment for kids.

teaching resource

Types of Soil – Teaching Presentation

Practice identifying different types of soil with this 18-slide teaching presentation.