by Audrey Wynkoop
Looking for a hands-on way to teach composting, decomposition, ecosystems, and sustainability? Worm composting brings those lessons to life…literally. To help teachers bring vermicomposting into the classroom, we've created a growing collection of free classroom activities and resources for students of different ages.
A goal for us this back-to-school season is to be a better partner with our education community. We’ve created some classroom activities for you to download and integrate into your classroom vermicomposting lesson plans. Did we mention they’re FREE! We’ll be adding more throughout the year, so be sure to bookmark this page and check back frequently.
Worm Farm: Color, Cut, & Paste Activity
Worm Composting Vocabulary Words
Worm Composting Vocabulary Wordsearch
Don't have a Worm Bucket yet? That's okay. Many of our free activities can be used to introduce students to worms, composting, food waste, and decomposition without a classroom worm bin.
How Worm Bucket Found It’s Classroom
It’s fun to reflect on the journey I’ve been on over the past 6 years, opening and owning the Worm Bucket small business. Initially Rob and I thought every household would have a bucket of worms living under their kitchen sink and composting their food scraps. It turns out there are fewer people out there willing to embrace the quirky and I’ll admit, somewhat weird hobby of vermicomposting!
We didn’t initially set out to make a classroom product. Teachers showed us it was one! Over the years, we’ve shipped our Worm Buckets across the country, and we started noticing they were often headed to schools, homeschooling classrooms and kid’s clubs. It made total sense. It turns out teachers have a special talent for turning something a little weird into something kids can't stop talking about.
It has become so special and fulfilling to us as a small business to help the next generations learn about the world around them. Composting in the classroom is a great way to inspire young people, by getting their hands in the dirt, on the worms, and off their screens and devices.
Want a Worm Bucket for Your Classroom? You May Not Have to Buy It Yourself.
We know what a struggle it is for teachers to get adequate funding for classroom resources and supplies. Recently, we had a teacher share with us a genius idea! We’d like to share it with you. She added the Worm Bucket to her classroom Amazon Wishlist, and it was funded by one of her student’s parents instead of coming out of her pocket money.
Heard of it? Amazon lets you create a list of classroom supplies you’ll need for the school year. That list is shareable and can be sent to friends, family, the PTO, classroom email lists etc. Teachers are using it as a tool to help spread costs out to anyone looking to donate and help support the school year. This teacher found out there were so many people in her community who were genuinely excited to help her create a fantastic classroom experience for students this school year.
Want to give it a try for your classroom? We made a short video that teaches you step-by-step how to create an Amazon Wishlist, add a Worm Bucket classroom composter to it, and start sharing with your community.