We started the year brainstorming ways we could take care of our classroom and the environment. We decided that this project would benefit the whole school…
Step One: Preparing the Bin
We learned about ways to recycle and then worked together to make a plan for creating a worm compost bin for the classroom.
Standards covered included gleaning information from nonfiction books, sorting, recording ideas, and shared writing, and sorting.
Sorting types of waste
Recording items we can compost
Shared non-fiction writing
Step Two: Building the Bin
As a team, we constructed the compost bin by drilling holes in a container, rehydrating a soil brick, and making layers of ripped newspaper for the worms to eat.
Standards covered included counting with one-to-one correspondence, making predictions, engaging in grade level conversations, and measuring liquid volume.
Discussing compacted soil
Measuring water to rehydrate soil
Spacing air holes
Step Three: Examining the Worms
At last, our worms arrived! We used magnifying glasses to observe our new friends and then imagined what it would be like to actually BE a worm by reading the book Diary of a Worm.
Standards covered included exploring point-of-view, responding to text, making scientific observations using the five senses, and using pictures/words/dictation to record ideas.
Sierra: “Some are curly, and some are straight.”
Jack: “I’m going to write red wigglers.”
Cayden: “I’m going to color mine brown.”
Ronan: “The worms are wiggly.”
Jonathan: “I see a big one.”
Kevin: “I need a skin crayon!”
The students really looked closely and noticed details, like the worms’ color and movement. Sierra also showed how she could compare/contrast different worms.
Reflection
Through this project, the students were able to practice thinking as scientists by making and recording detailed observations. They also learned how to take care of living things and use critical thinking to plan the building of the bin. Finally, they practiced working as a team to create a shared project that would benefit our class, the environment, and the school’s garden!
Next Steps
Unfortunately, our worms started dwindling mid-year. This could have been an opportunity to do some investigative work to try and figure out the problem and how we could solve it and strengthen our worm community.