Now that all of our planning was complete, it was time to teach the 4th graders! We were all so excited to finally put everything we'd learned into action! I wasn't as nervous this time as I was the first round, as I've already met all the kids and felt comfortable with them. We opened with telling them our names, and having them write down something they already knew about worms, or a question they had. This allowed the children to start thinking about worms and get their heads in the right question asking and brainstorming mindset. We had each kid one at a time tell us their name and what they wrote on their paper. This introduction was a nice segue into our next activity, a worm anatomy activity! We handed out flashcards with parts of a worms anatomy, and as a group they had to work together to figure out which labels belonged in which place. This encouraged the kids to use deductive reasoning to properly place the flashcards on the worm. We then went from kid to kid and had them explain why they believed they placed the card in the right spot, and then we told them if they were right or not. The kids were really into it! They already knew some of the parts for sure, and the ones they didn't know (like the clitellum and setae) they got to learn about! At this point we had the kids turn to the worm section in their booklet and draw the digram of the worm, and label at least a couple parts. Once the kids finished up with this, we handed out some gloves and explained the rules for observing the worms! After this, we had the kids split into groups of 3 or 4 and had three different trays of worms and compost! We encouraged them to make observations and write them down. They loved watching the worms move and carefully picking them up! To conclude, we had the kids share some of their observations and reinforce the importance of worms. The kids had a lot of fun! Overall I think this was such an amazing experience, and I would totally do this again if I had the chance!
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