I don’t have any current pictures of the first graders in action, but this doesn’t mean they haven’t been doing some fun exploring! A few days ago I brought the class outside to the garden to look at our compost pile. The first response of many of the students was “Where did our compost pile go?” What had been a medium sized pile of garden scraps, apples and coffee filters was now a small pile. The answer of course was that half of our pile had already turned into lovely dark brown compost. Much of this transformation was aided by earthworms, which we have been studying in class. Students were introduced to diagrams – detailed pictures with labeled body parts. We also learned that worms make tunnels by eating their way through the soil. I told the children to imagine that the science lab was filled with cotton candy and that the only way they could get to the door was eating their way through it. The children all agreed that they would be up for such a challenge!
