Has Engagement Hit a Slump? Try this!

I’m back at it with worm and ecosystem lessons this year. Because I have a smaller group of students that I taught this time, my lessons were a bit different. Here are my previous lessons on worms and ecosystems. In this case each child did NOT have their own worm, but there was a class worm farm. I did this previously in other teachers’s classrooms, so I wasn’t able to tend to the needs of the worms all the time.

WARNING: If you want to do this start saving your glass jars now. Plastic jars work okay, but I prefer the glass ones because the lids are metal and easier to punch holes in. With plastic jars, the lids are thinner and harder to puncture without cracking the lid. I requested children’s parents send in a jar, but not every child will bring one, as you know. I punctured the metal lids with a very small hole so that oxygen can pass through, and we don’t kill the worms. If you are able, it really does seem to benefit the children more and give them more responsibility to have their own worm farm.

DAY 1: Talk about ecosystems and layers of soil. Have the children make a diagram, color, and label the layers.

DAY 2: Preparing the jar will take one day’s lesson. Before preparing the jar, we had a discussion about the layers of soil and especially discussed topsoil and humus where the worms reside. We put cardboard and or brown paper in the bottom to absorb the water. I also gave them black construction paper and tape to give the worms the illusion of darkness around the jar. Some children make peepholes in their black paper. Flaps seem to work best so that they can flip them up and watch the worms work.

DAY 3: Next, I let them dig up their own dirt this time outside and one child even found a worm this way! It doesn’t take much dirt to fill a jar, but be prepared to know where a bare spot is outdoors so that digging isn’t too difficult. Bring a small shovel or a few to school that children can handle. The $1.25 Tree (now) usually has some of these. You will enjoy finding out which children LOVE getting dirty and which ones don’t! (This is fun to watch!). Leave a few inches of space at the top of the jar. Worms are good climbers you will find. Some are adventurous daredevils and will skydive off the table if you aren’t careful!

I had planned three experiments but found I was only able to have the kids accomplish one experiment and journal about it in each class. I repeated the experiments I did when I had the big worm farm in my initial worm farm post here.

DAY 4: Make friends with your school nurse beforehand. Some children will have a stronger aversion to worms than others. It isn’t always just the girls! Ha! I let the children look at the worms for a short few minutes prior to DAY 1. I told them they didn’t have to touch them and gave them a popsicle stick to move the worm with. I asked the nurse if she had gloves after this experience and had the children put them in a ziplock baggie with their name on it. This way whenever we get the worms out everyone has their gloves if they choose to wear them. This helped most kids, but I did still have one who said she didn’t even like to touch the worms with gloves on.

Experiments: 1. Does the worm like to be dry or moist?

Experiment 2. Does the worm like light or dark? At time of the writing on this post we are currently on experiment 2.

Experiment 3. Does the worm like sound/vibration?

Each time we pull out the worms, I have the children journal about each experiment and their worm observations. They record the hypothesis and results of the experiment. In order for this to happen, the worms have to be put away because they are a huge distraction from pencil and paper work.

On a personal note, I have noticed that the worms are all different and respond differently. Some like to wander off, some like to wrap around children’s fingers, some like to jump around, some stay coiled up. The observation is all very intriguing.

Have a mundane or difficult teacher conference? What a great way to add a positive note and distraction to a teacher conference if you happen to need a distraction.

*In case you aren’t aware, you can buy worms at Walmart in a tiny fridge in the sporting goods section.