This week's #playfulpreschool theme is all about The Earth, both of my kids are fascinated by what goes on underneath the surface of the earth and after our recent trip to the Natural History Museum they are even more fascinated after seeing the bugs as well as exploring the areas about volcanoes and Earth Quakes. Last year as part of the Virtual Book Club for Kids we explored what worms do creating a wormery that we could observe on the window sill.
We've built another wormery and this time I've been getting T my preschooler to journal what happens with a sneak peek at the worms each day over a week.
Why not read some other books all about worms - check out our selection of the Best Worm Books for Kids
Materials
Plastic Bottle
Worms from the back yard
Soil
Sand
Compost
Shredded newspaper
Paper for journalling on
Pencils and other colouring tools
Want to save some time and use a printed wormery journal then our Earthworm Activities pack contains a My Wiggly Worm Journal Page you can print as well as information and activities about the Earth Worm Life Cycle
Wormery Making
Pop on over to our Wormery Post to find out full instructions on making a drinks bottle wormery. They are very easy to make and you need around 5 worms in a 2l drinks bottle.
To make our journal I used some paper from an old sketch pad and added coloured paper to the front and back.
I then drew a bottle shape on each page and added some lines underneath where we could write some sentences about the wormery.
Each day we removed the cover from the wormery on the window sill and then sat down and drew in the layers of the soil and any worm holes that may have been made by the worms over night.
Once she had coloured in - we used pens, pencils, wax crayons and got out our water colours to colour in the different soils and what was happening - we then wrote a couple of lines about what we saw.
They were very simple and I wrote the lines and then T traced over the words in a different colour following the letters and "reading" aloud the letters and words as she traced over them.
Journalling with drawing and writing together is a great way to get preschoolers to start recording their observations and can easily be adapted for different situations - both T and J are currently keeping Tadpole Journals as we raise our own tadpoles again this Spring.
More Earth Ideas from the #playfulpreschool team
Alphabet Activities: Compost Sensory Bin – Growing Book by Book
Wormery Journaling – Rainy Day Mum
Earth Sensory Table Small World – Mom Inspired Life
On Planet Earth There are Five Oceans – Children’s Song – Capri + 3
Earth Day Preschool Math and Sensory Play – Fun-A-Day!
Layers of the Earth Felt Puzzle – Powerful Mothering
No Mess Painting earth in a Bag – Still Playing School
Building Language Skills for Preschoolers: Earth Theme – Life Over C’s
Earth: Water Cycle – Tiny Tots Adventures
Learning about Earth Through Play: Solar System Floor Puzzle – The Educators Spin On It
Play dough Earth Layers - Learning 2 Walk
Cerys Parker
Cerys is a marine biologist, environmental educator, high school teacher and mum. Realising that life doesn't have to be put on hold and you don't just have to survive whilst the kids are young she shares ideas to inspire you to LIVE with the kids, with activities to do together, recipes to cook and enjoy and family travel to make memories to last a lifetime.
Kim says
My kids would never play with worms like that, but it looks like fun!
Theresa says
That looks like a lot of fun. I love the journaling idea to complement the wormery. I intend to start vermicomposting again and love the idea of adding journaling for the kids.
Danielle says
My son would love this! It's really cool!
Natasha says
Love this Journaling idea. I suck at keeping record of our long ongoing projects.
Devany says
Oh, I never saw your wormery post before! I love the original idea and this writing extension! We are definitely trying this!