Red worms

As part of our worm study, we decided to establish a composting redworm bin and contribute natural fertilizer to the school garden. Our part in the project was to prepare the worm bin. We ripped newspaper into 1 inch strips and added water. This will be the basic medium that our redworms will live in and help them stay moist. We needed 4.5 pounds of newspaper! We prepared for this special project by visiting "The Adventures of Herman the Worm" website posted by the University of Illinois. It helped us calculate how much newspaper and water we would need. When the worms arrived by mail, we studied their bodies and compared them to the earthworms and nightcrawlers we had previously studied. Mrs. Stauffer's Kindergarten added the worms to the bin and will be feeding them for the first few weeks. They add left-over fruit and vegetable scraps to the bin to "feed" the worms. It will take 4-6 weeks for the first batch of compost to be available for us to take out to the garden.

If you are interested in learned more about this project, worm anatomy, or how to make your own redworm composter, check out this link:
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/worms/index.html

Out in the Garden

We ended Earth Week by heading out into the Lowell School Helping Hands Community Garden to see what we can find. There are many plants already growing after their long winter sleep. We also found some living things UNDER the soil! After spending a good amount of time digging in the soil, we discovered that we could find earthworms if we dug down deep enough. We will be studying these favorite little creatures in the next few weeks while we wait for our chicken and duck eggs to hatch.
Our afternoon in the garden ended with an impromptu concert from the Lowell school orchestra as they came outside to practice in the sun. Then we came inside and started pumpkin plants for the garden by planting seeds we saved from the pumpkin we harvested and studied last fall. I can't think of a better way to spend the afternoon with my kindergarten friends!