SVSU Grant Worm Bins

Thanks to an SVSU science grant, our classroom has been gifted with some fascinating worm bins! With these worm bins, our second and third graders will learn many things about worms such as what they eat and where they like to live. This week, our students observed plates of "worm soil", which actually included red and white worms along with other types of creatures such as spiders and snails.

Before beginning to look through the soil, we discussed the different parts of a worm such as the anterior and posterior so students could look for these things as they found worms in the soil. Students also made a guess of how many worms, spiders, snails, etc. they would find in the soil. Students enjoyed looking through the soil and discovering the many different creatures! It was very interesting to see whether or not students had guessed the correct number of worms, snails, etc. in their "worm soil". 

To end the activity, students drew a worm and labeled the different parts of this worm to reinforce what they had already learned about them. Also, they listed three observations they made while digging through the soil and discovering the many creatures in it. After finishing this activity, students placed their "worm soil" in our worm bins where the worms will live for the rest of the school year. Students will feed the worms with scraps of their lunches and the worms will in return give us "worm tea", which can have an incredible influence on plants as they grow. Feel free to come to our classroom and discover how these bins work!