How do you get middle school kids to think about garbage and composting? Well, you simply bring some wiggly worms to school. Along with the live ones, it doesn’t hurt to provide some gummy ones as well. Last Wednesday I did just that–I took worms of both types, along with some other stuff to College, Career, and Community (C3) Day at Brody Middle School in Des Moines.
Worms are fascinating, especially to kids. Most of them didn’t know that worms eat food waste, and cut down on how much we throw in the garbage. I got some great reactions when I showed the kids our worm-composting bins, and the students jumped into some great discussions about composting and trash in general.
My session focused on trash–
I also had the students sort trash sorting according to where stuff goes; they were surprised to learn plastic bags do not belong in their home recycle containers, but need to be recycled at their local grocery or big box store. My favorite part of the day was seeing the students interact with each other and their overall high level of interest in the C3 event!
To bring this activity to your school, download our Composting with Worms lesson plan for free. Though it is aligned with 5th Grade NGSS, it can be adapted for students in Kindergarten through 8th grades. If you’d like a professional to bring some worms to your school, send Shelly an email and she’ll make it happen.