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You are here: Home / How To's / Observing Worms with Preschoolers

Observing Worms with Preschoolers

April 18, 2016 by Maureen Spell 26 Comments




 It all started with an innocent question,

“Why do we need worms?”

At that moment I realized that I could answer and explain how worms help mix the soil which is good for plants, or that they are food for birds, and so on, but I decided that it might be fun to let my children see for themselves why we need worms. I decided we needed to do a little worm observation. It would be fun to learn about worms by creating a wormery.

Learning About Worms

Learning About Worms: Creating a Wormery

I came across a pop-bottle wormery craft from Karrie McAllister and knew this is what we needed to make. Don’t worry, these worms are contained and quite easy to take care of. You probably already own all the materials needed to make this worm house.

Worm House Supplies

Worm House Supplies:

1 clean 2 liter plastic bottle
1 plastic water bottle filled with room temperature water
scissors
tape
dark construction paper
soil
sand
dried leaves or hay
oatmeal

Worm House Step 1

First remove the top of the bottle. Use tape to cover the edges as they might be sharp. We don’t want any fingers or worms to get hurt.
Preparing the Worm House
Place a water bottle in the middle of the pop bottle.  This is to force the worms to move to the outside of the bottle, instead of hiding in the middle. Make sure the bottle is filled with room temperature water. Next go outside and fill the container. Start with a layer of sand, then a layer of soil. You can also add a layer of dry leaves or hay. Alternate layers until the bottle is 3/4ths filled.

Digging for worms

Now the hunt begins. Ask your child where they think the best place to find worms would be.  Let them explore and see how many they can find. My 3yr. old found a couple worms in the garden, but found even more under rocks and planters. We gathered our handful of worms and placed them in our homemade worm home.

worm hotel

Make sure the soil is damp, but not wet. Add some dry leaves or hay along with oatmeal crumbs.

Worm Hotel 2

Wrap a piece of black construction paper around the bottle. Let it sit for a day or two before removing the paper. While you are waiting, take some time to read a couple books on worms!

Be sure to check out day 2 of our worm observation study.

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Filed Under: How To's, PreK-K, Preschool Science, science Tagged With: blog series, nature, preschool, science, toddler, worms

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Observing Worms: Activities

Comments

  1. Ami says

    April 17, 2012 at 8:55 am

    Thank you for this! One of Simon’s current interest is worms, and I wasn’t exactly sure how we were going to study them. I will definitely include this activity! 🙂 Ami

    Reply
  2. Three Loud Kids! says

    April 17, 2012 at 10:02 am

    How great! My youngest would adore this! Absolutely giving this a try!

    Reply
  3. Abby says

    April 17, 2012 at 10:30 am

    What a great idea! My little ones love to watch worms, but refuse to touch them. This will be a great project for us! Thanks!

    Reply
  4. Tricia says

    April 17, 2012 at 11:21 am

    Some might say ‘eeeewwww’ but I say awesome! Thanks for a fun nature project!

    Reply
  5. hsmominmo says

    April 17, 2012 at 11:23 am

    Love this! I know this is a series for Science with Preschoolers, but this is absolutely appropriate for all ages. We’ll be setting this little experiment up today, I think.

    Reply
    • Maureen says

      April 17, 2012 at 11:32 am

      Yes, you are right–all ages would enjoy this. My older kids have been observing right along with us too. 🙂

      Reply
  6. Lisa M (Farm Fresh Adventures) says

    April 17, 2012 at 5:43 pm

    Love it! My boys will enjoy the hunting for worms process immensely! And since we are currently sowing our garden, it’s the perfect time to find them!

    Reply
  7. Basbusa's Mama says

    April 17, 2012 at 5:59 pm

    Thanks so much, what a great idea! We just read Yucky Worms and loved it, so it’s perfect timing.

    Reply
  8. Lindsay @ Bytes of Memory says

    April 18, 2012 at 1:37 pm

    What fun!! These lessons are getting em super excited to do science with my son! Thanks for sharing what you have been doing!

    Reply
  9. Deborah says

    April 20, 2012 at 4:41 pm

    I can’t wait to see what happens next!

    Reply
  10. Jennifer says

    May 1, 2012 at 6:05 pm

    I teach 2nd grade and I absolutely hate worms, but I am always trying to think of ways to use animals in my classroom. This is going to be awesome. I think I will have the kids make these. One wormery for each table. This is going to be fun!

    Reply
  11. Darci the STEM mom says

    October 14, 2012 at 10:14 am

    Just wanted to let you know that I’ve been working on a kindergarten unit with Andrea from No Doubt Learning, and Erin from The Usual Mayhem and we will be referencing your site several times. We’ve included the paper bag activity and I referenced your worm home, made out of plastic bottles. Thanks so much for sharing your materials!

    Reply
  12. kelli- AdventurezInChildRearing says

    October 18, 2012 at 10:55 pm

    totally doing this – pinning now!

    Reply
  13. Barbara says

    April 6, 2013 at 12:06 pm

    We’re just getting ready to begin a study on spring starting with worms. I haven’t heard of anyone putting the small bottle filled with warm water inside the container to force them to stay to the outside, but that makes SO much sense. What a timely post!! Ms. Barbara from For the Children

    Reply
  14. Kyle McVay says

    October 18, 2013 at 9:17 pm

    We are getting this ready to make worm houses in our co-op here in the great state of Texas! Thanks for the idea our preschoolers are going to love it! Blessings, Kyle

    Reply
    • Maureen Spell says

      October 19, 2013 at 8:45 pm

      Have fun! If you blog about it, be sure to let me know! 🙂

      Reply
  15. sabrina says

    March 27, 2014 at 3:38 pm

    Oh this is SO easy to do!!! I’m looking forward to trying this with my kids. And looking forward to Day 2…lol!

    Reply
  16. Denise says

    April 10, 2014 at 10:10 pm

    This may be a silly question but what is the reason for putting the dark paper on the outside of the container?

    Reply
    • Maureen Spell says

      April 11, 2014 at 11:34 am

      Not a silly question at all! You put the dark paper around the bottle to keep the light out. This will also encourage the worms to tunnel close to the outside of the bottle so that you can see them. Worms like dark places!

      Reply
  17. Stephanie says

    May 21, 2014 at 3:03 pm

    Great idea!

    How long can the worms stay in there? What would we feed them?

    Believe it or not, I’ve already killed a few worms by not feeding them correctly or something…who knows!

    LOL….I guess that was the “circle of life” nature lesson 🙂

    Steph

    Reply
    • Maureen Spell says

      May 21, 2014 at 6:13 pm

      We only kept ours for a week. We just added leaves and dried oatmeal (can’t remember where I read to do that.) Here’s a list on what you could feed them http://www.naturesfootprint.com/what-to-feed-worms

      Reply
      • Stephanie says

        May 24, 2014 at 12:56 pm

        Thank you! 🙂

        Reply
  18. tuiga vaialia says

    August 9, 2015 at 6:03 am

    really love your ideas.thank you.

    Reply
  19. Chana says

    March 22, 2017 at 10:56 pm

    what keeps the worms from crawling out

    Reply
  20. Tiffany says

    November 26, 2017 at 9:54 am

    I did this and within a week I started getting mold. Was I supposed to take the top off after a couple days so air could get to it?! My kids and I will be sad to throw it out.

    Reply
    • Maureen Spell says

      November 27, 2017 at 8:20 pm

      This wormery is a short-term observation activity. We only had ours up for about 3 days before returning all the worms and the wormery contents back to the garden.

      Reply

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