As it relates to worms, the link below may be just what you are looking for. The site is large with good, easy to understand wording, and some pictures. I trust this helps in some area...

Blutranes

Here is a link that might be useful: The Burrow

One other thing that may be of service can be found at the link below. The site has much to offer geared towards children ...

Blutranes

BTW, we sure can't teach without a trusty glossary found here, now can we?

Here is a link that might be useful: Habitat Gardening

g'day,

you are welcome to see how we do our raised/lasagne bed gardens, we also have pictures of a worm farm we had made from a 55 gallon plastic drum, but you can use old bathtubs as well, pretty much anything will work, but for now our worm farms are our garden beds and our compost heaps.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

I Googled "worm facts kids" (without the quotes) and the results said 1-10 of about 1,810,000.

Here is a link that might be useful: Worm facts for kids search results in Google

Thanks everyone! I have a lot of reading to do tonight! If you have any other ideas, keep them coming!

I just got back from school. I scoped out the spot for my lasagna garden. That should be heat.

If you go to http://www.squarefootgardening.com/
on the left side at the very bottom is a link for "School Gardening" which may help.

In there are links for Teaching Advice, Kids Games, and School Contest. Combining the Lasagna approach with SFG is a worthwhile way to learn.

One project I helped with was second graders who had already planted their own seeds inside during the late winter months. Then moving the plants to a 2ft wide 25ft (50 squares) long SFG. Each student had their very own square to plant their little seedling into. They brought them out in groups of 10 or 15. What a sight, trying to keep the kids focused. But we ALL had fun.

Not sure where you are at but rutgers sounds like it could be NY? It was a way for the students to see their plants begin to grow before school got out.

If you think this will work for you - to get a lesson plan: Click on "What's New" then the little sign that says "Teaching SFG".

HTH,
Gumby_CT

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

Cornell has a very good web site about composting in schools with many resources designed for projects at schools. The National Gardening Association also has material designe for use in schools, www.garden.org

Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell Composting

There is a really cute book called "Diary of a Worm" by Doreen Cronin. My daughter read it some time in the past 2 years, and she's in 5th grade now. It's quite basic, but it would be a fun way to reinforce the ideas you're getting across. You could have your students write their own stories about various players in the composting community. Maybe they could make puppets and put on a composting puppet show. Some kids are very computer savvy and could find photos or electron microscope images online and put together a powerpoint with music and everything. That could be a learning process in itself. Maybe they could use window paint and do a mural of the whole process. I have considered asking the school to give us a small area for a compost pile outside and having kids get their families to contribute a bag of leaves or lawn clippings. The teachers could add the coffee ground from the break room and you could get a thermometer and moniter the temperature. You could do a few different piles and vary their composition or frequency of turning, etc. and see how the temperature differs. Is that enough? Sorry, I tend to get carried away. Have fun.

Martha
P.S. You could plant some flowers and give some of them the compost and leave the others without and see how they each grow. Alright, I'll shut up!

This is all awesome. I just wrote a super long email to my principal about all of my plans!

Hey rutgers,
Back in the late 90's, I worked for the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens. We applied and received federal grant money to teach about california native plants and animals to elementary students in urban, underfunded schools. Each class got to participate in 1 of 5 projects and had slide shows, etc.
One of the projects was making a worm composting kit. Each kid got to "feed" the worms one week per year. We gave the teachers info on worm biology, ecology, etc for them to support the project. The program was called california alive, and it looks like its now taken off into some sort of educational program (google Cal Alive).

Regarding lasagna gardening with the kids...I recommend you ask each child to bring in their compostable kitchen waste from the weekend in a plastic bag and then have them all dump their stuff at the base of the lasagna pile. Then cover it with grass clippings. Then have them tear up and shred used paper assignments, etc. Then convey to them that they are helping to keep land fills empty, not wasting fossil fuels by having their trash/waste driven to a landfill, etc. Then I suggest you consider growing something edible that they can plant (fall brocolli or lettuce), harvest, learn nutrutional benefits of, etc. Maybe you could also consider getting a class iguana or hampster or something and grow greens to feed the animal. Oh a million ideas are out there. Email me if you have further questions....g

sunshineboy has a good idea- I'd take it one step further and have some of the kids bring in kitchen scraps, others bring in junk mail, cardboard & newspapers, and if someone has a pet rabbit, horse, or cow, have them bring in a small bucket of manure (with explicit instruction on how-to-transport it)- (kids will go nutso playing with poop). This will give you a good basis to start "green & brown" chat by sorting the greens & browns out, teaching them also that plastic has no place in the compost pile and should be recycled (elsewhere).

Someone said it earlier, and I didn't understand it - how can you plant into a lasagna bed when you first create it? Will roots find nutrients in grass clippings, leaves and paper?

It is raining today. I was totally pumped to get back out there and start preparing. I will post a photo of the place soon for you all to see. It is pretty cool. It is a Native American inspired garden. We have a wigwam, cooking fire, canoe and more, with a nice mulched area surrounding it. The kids love it! If we can get some nice veggies growing, it will be PERFECT!

There is a "Magic School Bus" book called "Meets the Rot Squad" which talks about all the "life" that is in a rotting log. There is also a suggested activity from the website http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=1662

Have fun!

Jen

Here is a link that might be useful: Magic Shool Bus

If I were a third grader, forget the kitchen scraps --- I'd want to bring in a worm from my home garden. :)

I've thought about making a demonstration lasagna garden at the school (My kids are 7 and 10) though I don't know if it will happen or not. I've envisioned using one of the framed vegetable beds that the school has, and layering the materials so that you can see the successive layers, Each layer would be "pulled back" a bit for a terraced effect, so that the kids could actually see the layers. Something like:

...................................I----------------------------------------Straw
...........................I-------------------------------------Coffee grounds
................I-----------------------------------------------Pine needles
........ I-------------------------------------------------Grass clippings
I-----------------------------------------------------------Cardboard

I would plant a few things at the end that has all the layers, and I'd have some descriptions of some sort, to explain the different layers and the values of lasagna gardening.

I think your ideas are great - I look forward to hearing how your demonstrations go!

Patty

The Magic School Bus book looks great. Sometimes, they have videos for the books - so I will check that out too. I like the related hands-on activity, if it works.

Are you familiar with the Ag in the Classroom program? Your state program might have some curriculum on vermicomposting and lasagna gardening.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ag in the Classroom

I teach 6th grade and I have used this book with my students. I have the book at school and would be happy to share it with you. Email me.
Maymo

Here is a link that might be useful: Worms Eat Our Garbage