Ms. Murphy's second grade class elected a gecko to be their class pet. Ms. Breneus's kindergarten class didn't have a choice about what their new pets would be. Nevertheless, they are very happy. They have hundreds of red wiggler worms.
The Perkins School is a "seed" school for a program named SLUG (Students Learning through Urban Gardening). Our wonderful volunteer Ms. Flaherty comes in regularly to work with many classes--including the kindergarten.
You can't grow healthy plants without good soil. One way to enrich soil is to make compost by letting leaves and old vegetables break down and become rich to soil to mix in with other dirt. Another is to let worms do the work for you.
The kids set up their worm farm by putting shredded paper into a plastic box. The worms would live in this paper; it would be like dirt to them.
If the worms lived in dry paper, they would dry out themselves. So the kids added water, spraying it so it would just moisten the paper instead of making puddles. Not too much. Not too little. Just the right amount.
Next came the food. Coffee grounds and apple peels. This may not sound delicious to you, but the worms love 'em!
Then it was time to move in.
The worms all started out in the corner, but they don't like the light too much--even once the darker lid was placed on top of their new home. What would they do? Where would they go? We'll have to wait and see.
