Search Results for: worm
How You Can Build a Worm Farm at School
Recently I taught some lessons about earthworms and ecosystems. I did this in a series of short lessons that you will enjoy. Even your children that don’t like to do their work will work for you if they get to touch a worm. 🙂
Lesson 1: We read the Diary of a Worm. This book is so fun and helpful to boost creativity. Students gladly named their worm. Next, we learned about the anatomy of a worm. You can find diagrams in lots of places showing worm anatomy. Then we observed a worm wih a magnifying glass to see how it moved.
Lesson 2: We did three simple worm experiments with our worms in a plastic Dollar Tree dish covered with another clear dish so that it made a kind of petri dish. 1. Does the worm like moisture? Half the dish is covered in wet paper towel. Students place one worm inside and see which way it travels. 2. Does the worm like darkness? We covered half of the roof with black construction paper to see if the worm would like dark or light. 3. We tapped one side of the dish with a pencil to see if the worm would like or not like sound.
Lesson 3: We build a worm farm/ecosystem. I used old lettuce containers that can be found at the grocery store like these. On the bottom of the container, we placed brown paper to soak up any water from when we added a fine mist. Then of course we added some dirt. I let several children come and add a cup of dirt so there would be lots of involvement. Next, I let children add their worm. Finally we added some food such as celery leaves and fallen oak tree leaves. Ta-da! Earthworm Academy is open for business!
A Worm Named Oreo
Leaving school one day I hear a discussion among kids on the playground. “What did you name your worm? I named mine Oreo.” The girl says she named hers Oreo because it looked like an Oreo with all the dirt on it. Paper plates seemed to work well for containing the worms for observation. You have to be careful though because the worms can wander off if you don’t watch them. I found one trying to crawl off of a student desk. I lost another one, but the custodian found it on the floor. Hey, I added excitement to his day! LOL!
This discussion came as a result of me teaching them about worms and them looking closely at the body parts of a worm. To add an element of creativity, I had students name their worm. We did this after watching the Diary of a Worm on video. I love this book for it’s imagination into the creative world.
Students are studying ecosystems, so I plan to build a worm farm of sorts in their classroom. For now, I am just holding onto the worms until we learn a little more. To build a worm farm, you need a container, dirt, old newspaper, and some vegetable scraps. Of course, you need worms. I purchased mine at Wal-mart in the sporting goods section. Until we learn more I am storing them in the refrigerator on a not too cold setting in some dirt. I have given them an old banana peel in case they need a snack. This website has some good information on worm farming. You will need a container, dirt, old newspaper, and some vegetable scraps. Until we learn more I am storing them in the refrigerator on a not too cold setting in some dirt. I have given them an old banana peel in case they need a snack. This website has some good information on worm farming if you want to build one.
The great thing about showing students worms is that I got some work out of some students who don’t normally produce work just so they got to look at a worm. I will give you more information soon about our worm farm adventures.
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.
