Worms, Nature's Recyclers!

Trying to plan an engaging elementary science unit on natural resources? Conserve your energy! This five-part series of lessons and hands-on activities has exactly what you need to teach young scholars about the importance of conservation.

Students explore the process of decomposition. In this ecology and measurement lesson, students prepare a worm home to be used for vermicomposting. Students weigh a group of worms and the added food, recording this information on a data...

Third graders explore the process of composting. In this composting lesson, 3rd graders read the book Wonderful Worms, and create composters.

Kids get the dirt on worms by building a vermicomposter and observing, over time, the changes red worms make in the soil in the bin.

Students explore vermi-composting. In this vermi-composting lesson, students listen to the story Diary of a Worm and discuss the parts of a worm. They create worm bins and add organic food for the worms to recycle. 

Students set up composting sites that allow food scraps and paper to be recycled by nature. They are introduced to one aspect of recycling; composting. Students see how God recycles as the worms change garbage into something that brings...

Scientists define and discuss decomposition, and watch pumpkins decompose and return to soil in classroom experiment. They record the date the experiment began, chart changes in pumpkins on a calendar, count how many days it takes...

Your class will learn about natural resources and man-made items and differentiate between them. They chart resources from seven pictures and explain how each natural resource is used.

Third graders predict what happen in two (control and experiment) containers -- one with soil and trash, the other with soil, trash, and worms.

Does your class know about nature's recyclers? The class is introduced to three types of composting, how it works, and why it is good for the environment. They will go outside in search of five items: a dead tree or log, a live tree, a...