PAY IT FORWARD

Vermicomposting

Les Causeries Playschool would like to thank Raymond James for sponsoring our amazing field trip to the Edmonton Valley Zoo this school year. Our children were so excited to see the different animals, learn about the animal habitats, and get up close to a tortoise. For our Pay it Forward for the Planet project this year, we introduced the idea of composting. We added a green bin to our garbage and recycle bins, and encouraged children to put their food scraps from their snacks in the green bin. Whenever someone had a banana for snack, there was lots of excitement about putting the peel in the green bin. As an extension of the green bin we adopted a bin of red wiggler worms as our class pets. The children got to see how their food scraps were actual food for the worms, and how the worms used our garbage to make castings to help us grow more food. The children learned about what worms like to eat, and helped feed the worms fruit and vegetable scraps and brown paper that they had cut up themselves. The children were very interested in looking at the worms, and learned how to be careful and gentle when opening the worm bucket and handling the worms. In addition, we used the worm castings to mix with potting soil to plant flowers that each child will be able to take home when the weather warms up. Through this process, the children were able to see how they can be responsible with their garbage to help other creatures and to help grow more plants for our community. As a class we read many books about worms and learned how they can help us and we can help them, and the children were able to make connections with their behaviour for other plants and animals. It was great to see the children so engaged in taking care of our “pets” and so interested in how the worms were able to make dirt from our garbage. This whole project provided many opportunities for the children to learn to be responsible for the environment, and we are grateful to have had the chance to see other animals that the zoo is supporting through their conservation efforts.