Happy April! We have had a very busy week in our class learning about worms. Learning about worms is a great addition to any recycling or Earth Day unit. Kids love (or squirm) worms!
Worm Farm
Yesterday we went to our local worm farm. The head farmer, Mark ships worms all over the world (except Hawaii and Mexico). He is great with the kids and has a great field trip program.
Compost Bin
Farmer Mark always gives us some worms, so today we made our own class worm bin. First, I took a plastic bin I had laying in my garage and had our wonderful janitor drill air holes along the sides. Next, my firsties ripped up newspaper to put into our worm bin.
After we had enough paper, we combined all of the newspaper pieces and sprayed them with water to make the paper moist. You want to just moisten the paper, not soak it.
Once the newspaper was moist, we needed food. So we each ate a strawberry! We put the green stem into our compost bin. These will rot and the worms will love it!
After all of that, our worms were ready for their home. We put them into the compost bin and we will continue to feed them our food scraps and watch our castings grow. Our castings will be used in our school garden. Fun stuff!
For more fun worm, rot and other recycling activities check out this pack:
Next, we will make our worm friends and make a worm snack. I hope your week is going well!
What a fun trip and project!
Crystal Shepherd
lucytumnus@gmail.com
The lamppost in 1st grade math
Where did you drill holes in the plastic tub? I tried looking at the picture, but I couldn't see.
The holes are drilled a couple of inches up the sides of the plastic tub. They are really small because the worms are pretty small.
You should not get frightened to see the worm casts in your lawn, because it just helps enriching the soil quality, which is a good sign for the growth of desirable plants.
How long to you keep the worms in the classroom? Do they ever escape?
I’d love to do this in my classroom. Looks like fun!
I usually keep them until the end of the school year. I ask if any families want to take it home and continue with it. Sometimes I get a volunteer, but if I don’t I pass them onto our school garden coordinator. She is always happy to have them!
Do you add additional dirt to the bin? I went and bought 3 containers of large worms and will make the compost bin tomorrow.
I do not add additional dirt. The worms we get from the worm farm come in dirt (castings) and we just use that. The worms produce more castings over time. Good luck with your bin!