Soil, sand, and dust

Tiny chips of rock and powdered flower petals. Bits of bats' wings and birds' feathers. Fragments of dried-up caterpillar skin and pieces of mouse whiskers.

That isn't a recipe for a magic potion. It's the "recipe" for soil ! Soil is tiny bits of rock mixed with tiny bits of dead plants and animals. When plants and animals die, their bodies decay and fall apart. Rain washes them into the ground, to mix with the rest of the soil.

Sand is tiny bits of rock. Wind, water, and the roots of plants all help to make sand. Wind blowing against rock wears off tiny bits of it. Rain falling on rock, and waves smashing against it, also break off bits. The roots of plants dig into rock and split it into small pieces.

Dust is made up of tiny, tiny bits of sand, soil, animal hairs, bits of plants, and other things carried into the air by the wind. The dust floats in the air for a time, then drifts back to earth again.