Earthways Presentation

Just when you thought we had learned it all about composting...

Today Kim from Earthways (a division of the Missouri Botanical Gardens) came to our classroom to do a presentation about composting and recycling. We learned a lot of interesting facts, like:

Paper can be recycled 5-7 times.

In the United States, one person makes about 5 pounds of trash each day.

In Missouri, one person makes about 6 pounds of trash each day.

In St. Louis, one person makes about 9.5 pounds of trash each day.

The top 5 most common things in the landfill.

1.  paper

2.  food

3.  plastics

4.  metal

5.  glass

We can recycle or compost ALL of those things!

Students got to practice sorting trash into compostable, recyclable, and landfill piles. This is perfect before our cafeteria recycling and composting starts on Nov. 5th. 

Some students got to act out a food chain, learning about the important role of decomposers. Then we got to dig through real compost, finding all kinds of critters. It was very engaging and educational. 

Ms. Kim taught us lots of great information.

Madeline and Clayton sort their trash.

Sydney and Kira discuss how to sort their trash.

Some students act out a food chain.

Compost digging- Eddie, Olivia C., Max, and Alexis

Olivia C., Sarah, and Wyatt

Marin, Madeline, Clayton, Olivia, and Kira find some critters.

Pete, Audrey and Maya look at some worms and roly polies.

Worms!

We have been waiting for weeks for our worms to arrive. After ordering them from two different companies and waiting for a month, they finally arrived via FedEx on Friday afternoon (sadly, after school was out). I was already gone for the weekend myself, so we were lucky to have Mrs. Wellman, Mr. Pursley, and Mrs. John around to set them up for us. I certainly owe them one!

Our Worm-A-Way worm bin

 Our worms (all 1,000 of them) are living  in a special box in our room. They have newspaper bedding and a little soil, mixed with water in their tub. We will feed them a few pounds of compostable material each week, and wait for them to do their work. Hopefully, we will have some great compost by spring to use in our new Project IDEA gardens.

Everyone was very excited to open the lid and check out the worms. The worms like to hide, so we have to dig to find them.

We have decided to make it a classroom job to be the weekly worm keeper. This person will help feed the worms, keep their tub moist, and keep a log of everything we are feeding them. It's not easy to look after 1,000 class pets!

One cool effect of this project already is that more kids are bringing compostable snacks, which tend to be healthier. Kids are very excited to feed their banana or orange peels or leftover fruit or veggies to the worms. This is am outcome I hadn't even anticipated.

Today Mr. Krena, our talented third grade teacher, sang his original worm song with us. The song is absolutely perfect for this learning.

In case you were wondering, we can not tell them apart. We have decided to name them all Bob.

Compost Project 3

Maya, Sarah, and Sydney wrote a song about composting.

Kira and Olivia P. share some of their favorite facts about composting.

Compost Projects 2

Here are a few more great compost projects to share:

Some of our students decided that Peace, Love and Compost was a good motto for our class and projects.

Allison wrote a book about composting that she read to a first-grade classroom.

Eddie wrote a book called All About Composting that he read to Mrs. Prichard's class.

Zack wrote The Diary of a Millipede.

Alexis, Wyatt and Olivia C. made a video to show what they know about composting.

Compost Projects- Part 1

We have been learning about soil and composting for weeks now. To show what they know, students selected a compost project to work on. Their goal was to teach other people about composting, and they had 7 different choices about how to do that. I wanted students to be creative and to choose a project they would enjoy. After discussing the expectations of each project, students made a choice and signed the Composting Project Contract.

A big part of working on this project was choosing the audience and the goal. Some students chose to teach younger children about composting, while other chose to teach parents about how to compost at home, or teach the entire school about composting in the cafeteria (which we hope to start soon). I think this focus helped make their projects more meaningful.

We worked on the projects every morning for two weeks. I was amazed at how seriously the students took their work. Some kids were researching on computers and in books, while others dove right into writing scrips and rough drafts.

At the end of the two weeks, everyone has completed a project. We are working on editing some of the videos, or binding a few books, but all of their learning and producing is complete. I love how invested the students are with their projects. They are so excited to share them with others. Some students will be reading their books to other classes next week. Others are excited to show off their songs and videos. Posters are now hanging in our hallway.

Here are a few of the many projects that are complete:

This is a video by Trevor, Pete, Clayton and Gus demonstrating how they set up a composting experiment with worms. We are still observing the experiment in our classroom. We owe a BIG thanks to Mrs. John for helping with the experiment and video.

Alex made a poster of a Log Hotel. We read a book called The Log Hotel, about a tree that fell over, and all of the living things that helped it decompose. Alex cut out pictures of animals and fungus that caused his log to break down.

Max made a brochure about how to compost at home. We sent it home with each student in our class and gave it out to other teachers at Keysor.

Audrey and Marin create a nonfiction book about critters that live in a compost bin. They even included a table of contents. They will read their book to a kindergarten class next week.

Madeline wrote and illustrated an ABC book about composting. She will share it with kindergarten students next week. 

First Field Trip

Today we took our first field trip to Litzsinger Road Ecology Center in Ladue. This was a great experience, partially because we got to plan the trip ourselves based on what we have been learning in class. The students were divided into five groups of four, and each group was led by a volunteer. Each student had science booklet to complete, and each group was given a gardening bag containing a shovel and an empty container. We had four main objectives:

1. Collect soil from a specific location (prairie, woodland, near the road, upper creek bank, lower creek bank) in their container, and draw and describe their dig site
2. Find five different bug boards located at the center, and pick them up to count and draw what they see
3. Find examples of weathering and erosion
4. Turn over a log and look for signs of decomposition. 

Because we had such great volunteers and I knew my students would be on their best behavior, I was able to float back and forth between all of the groups. I loved hearing the students' inquisitive questions and seeing the joy of learning on their faces. The students had the opportunity to explore with their volunteers for about an hour and a half, and each group traveled all over the center's grounds. Students found lots of worms, insects, fungi, new plants, and even a deer skeleton. At least one group saw live deer. We all learned lots of new things (including me) and got to put our classroom learning to the test. There was even time for some groups to skip rocks in the creek.

The time went very quickly and nobody was ready to leave. It was awesome to hear the students so excited about learning, and just to see them explore nature. Several of the volunteers told me how impressed they were with our students' behavior and said they were one of the best groups they had ever had. The volunteers were also impressed with the kids' understanding of erosion, weathering, soil, and decomposition.

We brought back our soil samples and other great nature finds to explore further in the classroom. This was a wonderful experience and such an extension of our classroom learning. The best part is that we get to go back at least once more this year (maybe two!)

Unfortunately, I was not able to get pictures of every group (they got really spread out), but I took a lot. 

The bus ride

Writing in their science journals

They found cool seed pods.

Sydney, Olivia P., Max, and Wyatt stopped to check under a log.

Gus stops to look at the cup plants.

Olivia, Audrey, and Sarah explore the prairie.

Kira, Marin, Pete, and Eddie listen to their volunteer.

Finding the remains of a dead deer.

Looking under a log

Kira and Eddie show off a worm they found.

Wyatt, Zack and Eddie share ideas during our debriefing afterwards.

Soil, Rocks, and Erosion- Oh My!

For the past few weeks, we have been learning about earth science. This unit is all about natural resources, soil, rocks, composting, and weathering and erosion. One of the great things about this unit is that we are getting outside to dig and explore nature. We have also been bringing nature into the classroom. This week we sorted rocks and explored with soil. It makes the classroom a little messy, but it's all in the name of learning.

Groups sorted their rocks based on different properties- color, size, texture, etc.

Today we learned about the different layers of soil- topsoil, subsoil and bedrock. I found a song called the Topsoil Dance on YouTube and we sand and grooved to the music. Here it is, in case you want to groove to it at home. Ask your children to show you the actions we used.

Right after science we went outside for an extra recess to celebrate Sarah's birthday. I guess the song is catchy, because I caught some girls singing it outside. I love how music can help you remember things, and when you throw in dancing, it just makes it fun.

Today we made posters to demonstrate our learning about soil layers. They turned out pretty great (and kids were singing the song while they worked).

Maya with her soil layers poster.

Alex shows off his soil poster.

Science learning is going to get even more exciting soon, as we are waiting for our worms to arrive! Come back to our blog soon for news about our worms.