Recycling the Vermicomposting Way

Mr. Burke's 5th grade students took notes in their garden journals about how to make an earthworm compost bin.  Materials included a plastic container with a lid, a plastic tube, shredded newspaper, a few trowels of soil, sprinkled water, and red wiggler earthworms or red worms.  They can be purchased from a Bait Shop for about $2.50 for 36 worms.

Earthworm castings, provide excellent fertilizer for plants because they are rich in organic materials and nutrients.  When castings accumulate, we will move the castings to one side of the bin and put fresh food in the other side.  The worms will migrate to the food and the castings can be harvested and added to the gardens to fertilize the plants.

Students shredded the newspaper and tossed it into the bin, sprinkled water, and added the worms.  The plastic tube running through the bottom of the bin is for air
intake and output.

                                                                                 
Earthworm observation took place after an introduction to the earthworm body systems.  Each worm is both male and female.  They need to be kept moist because they breathe through their skin.  They have a brain but no eyes, a mouth, digestive system, 5 pairs of hearts, circulatory system, and the familiar band near the head called the clitellum.  Eggs are contained in the clitellum.  If an earthworm is cut in half, it will not grow into two worms.  Instead the worm will die and become flat and crispy.

                                                                              

Earthworms eat fresh fruits and vegetables.  Students cut scraps of lettuce, carrots, egg shells, banana peels, and apples into tiny earthworm-size bites.  They added the morsels to the worm bin.  They also eat coffee grounds, grass clippings, and tea bags but no meat, onions, garlic, bones, citrus, or dairy products.  They might get gassy.  Students will continue to feed and care for the earthworms.                                        

A Sincere Thank You From The Gardeners

A great garden-gloved applause goes out to two Brooks parents and two greenhouses who donated plants for our vegetable gardens.  Mrs. Heather Barnes received and delivered donated plants from Bogie Lake Greenhouse in White Lake.  Mrs. Tammy Abner also donated plants and seeds from her family-owned greenhouse called Lucas Nursery, in Canton.  A variety of tomato plants, cucumber plants, pepper plants, and seeds were among the donations.  The generous contributions are greatly appreciated. 

                                                                             

In the Garden Journaling

"Take a look at this!"

Kindergarten students complete their Garden Journal covers. 

Kneeling pads become desks.

The box elder tree offers shade for our writers.

                                  
                                                    












What I Learned This Week

Earthworms in a new compost bin need to have a light left on at night so they don't escape from the bin, looking for food.  As soon as they find the food in the bin, then you can just leave on a nightlight.

Gardeners can wear tank tops and fleece jackets in the same week.

Once you start planting, you forget how cold or how hot you are.

Onion sets can produce either green onions or large onions depending on how far apart they are planted.  Just don't plant them upside-down.

Those crispy, flat earthworms should have been composted, not thrown in a waste basket.  A friend said he throws his dead chickens into his compost pile.  He added, "It's important to explain the appearance of bones in the compost because your kids may think they are dinosaur bones."

Getting rid of the ant colony in garden 5 with orange organic spray seems to have attracted the moles.  Now what?

Onion odor wafts through the mobile garden shed every time I turn the corner.

When loading up the mobile garden shed, don’t rush because the lawn tractor is quickly approaching.  You may just trip on the curb and fall onto the buckets of garden tools.  I’m just saying…

Telling fourth graders they are going to plant radishes today can bring an enthusiastic round of applause.

Yes, Flat and Crispy

Hey, look at them wiggle!

This week I will be teaching our youngsters about vermicomposting with earthworms.  A flood of memories have spilled into my consciousness of my worm bin introduction last year.   What I didn't realize that morning as I walked into my classroom, was the earthworms in my worm compost bin, had escaped during the night. It wasn’t until I was showing a kindergarten student  the worms in the worm bin, that I noticed a flat, dried out worm on the carpet.  “What is that, I wondered?”  I picked it up and found my dead friend all flattened out and crispy.  I searched the carpet for more escapees.  Sure enough, I found one after another all dried up and definitely flattened out.  I quickly scooped them up and dropped them into the waste basket, hoping Antonio wasn't getting the gist of this.  Unfortunately, a teacher was shadowing me that day, to discover a typical day for a literacy coach.  She saw me on my my hands and knees, crawling under the table, searching for the remains of earthworms.  Together we found 10-12 dead worms and thought maybe we should be writing names on tiny tombstones such as Wiggler, Squirmy, and Boomba.

I looked up while crawling on all fours and saw Antonio’s big brown eyes.  “Are there any in the hood of my sweatshirt?” he anxiously asked.  I assured him there were none and jumped up to rush him back to his room.  Then I searched the carpet again, made sure the lid was secure and plugged the ventilated holes in the worm bin with Saran Wrap. Then I locked those worms in with duck tape.
  
Not long after that, word had spread.  My second grade boys came in all excited about the worm bin.  I opened it up and showed them what was left of my collection.  They were in awe of the whole messy, wet, shredded newspaper clump and the few worms they could see in the bottom.  “Good,” I thought as I slipped the lid on it and placed it gently on the shelf.  As I walked back to sit down at the table, I spotted another red wiggler escaping out the door.  Upon closer inspection, I realized it was stiff and very still.  I scooped it up and tossed it into the waste basket nearby.  "Why did you throw that worm away?" asked an observant boy.  I couldn't quickly think of a better answer and just whispered to him, "It was dead."
  
My day continued as children wanted to know more about the earthworms in the worm bin.  Sitting at the table trying to teach my students, my eyes continued to scan the carpet in the area of the worm bin.  It seemed the Saran Wrap did the trick to block the escape routes.  At the end of the day, I explained to Mr. Chisik, our principal, about the sightings in case a parent should call with questions.  We laughed hysterically at the day’s events, as he gingerly stepped out of my room.  I went back to work at my desk when suddenly a teacher yelled from the hall, in front of my doorway, "Where did all these earthworms come from?"  I lunged across my desk and raced to the doorway only to find Mr. Chisik and Amy laughing uncontrollably.  Fortunately there were no flat and crispy critters to dispose of on the floor.  Seems the joke was on me all day long.


My sincere hope for this week’s lessons on earthworm composting will be for a little more cooperation from my hard-working gardening friends as they become acquainted with my young gardeners.     

Soil Preparation

Let the gardening begin!



Hey, that's my root!




Let's add some organic matter.




Soil that is loose, weed-free and full of air pockets, is ready to plant. 



Swift Transformation

"Write in your Garden Journal," she said.
“But there are no desks nor chairs!”

The wide sidewalk became 

desk surfaces so flat.

While the warmth of the concrete
erased all the chills.

And comfort found many positions,
as pencils filled pages with thoughts.

A Riddle

What is mobile, silver gray and filled with garden gloves, bags of journals, watering cans, cultivators, trowels and buckets?


ANSWER:

Our Mobile Garden Tool Shed

The Surprise Lesson

I reached for the basket of fresh veggies to show students what we may be harvesting from our garden.  "Ants, ants!" yelled the nearby students.  Sure enough, the unwelcome picnic pests had invaded the display.  "That's just part of gardening," I explained with a shrug, realizing some gardening lessons would be impromptu.

Gardening At Brooks Has Begun

Welcome friends to the Brooks Garden Journal Blog.  The school garden is an outdoor classroom oasis.  It provides students a rich opportunity to learn about complex and fascinating ecosystems as well as learn about growing and eating nutritious food.  The school garden lessons will be connected to the science curriculum on plant studies, for each grade level, K-5.    

Students who volunteer to be in the Garden Club, will meet once a week during their lunch recess time, through the end of the year.  They will learn how to use and care for garden tools.  They will be assigned to one of seven raised garden beds and will plant vegetable crops as a member of a gardening team.  They will learn about composting with earthworms as well as how to compost using a large compost bin.  Students will write about and draw their observations as well as graph plant growth over time, in their Garden Journals.

A big thank you goes to all who donated baked goods as well as those who bought and enjoyed them at the Garden Club Bake Sale.  I also want to thank the Student Council Representatives for selling the baked goods.  We raised $190.37 and purchased gardening tools so a class of 30 can work simultaneously.  The tools include watering cans, large and small gloves, buckets, cultivators, and trowels.

My hope for the gardening experience is to help children connect to the natural world by growing and caring for food they can eat.  I also hope gardening will provide experiences in cooperation, hard work, discipline, and self-awareness.   The project may even inspire environmental consciousness to a new generation of children. 

If you would like to get your hands dirty with us, please join us in the garden any day, Monday through Friday, 12:00-1:30.   The children and I would love to have your help.