Outdoor - Worm Farm - create an outdoor worm farm
Mini Lesson - What do you know about earthworms?
Pass around a jar containing dirt and a couple of earthworms. Read aloud, An Earthworm's Life (Nature Up close) by John Himmelman {This book has excellent illustrations and just one line of text per page, which makes it a perfect read aloud to introduce the topic of worms.}
Gross Motor - worm crawl tunnel; wiggle worm dance
Sensory Table - Cooked Spaghetti
Water Table organic potting soil and plastic worms (from fishing department), small shovels and mini buckets
Art Worm Paintings using yarn pieces {or plastic worms from the fishing department}
Math - Measuring with Worms, Arranging "yarn worms" by length. Unifex cubes to compare.
Writing Center - small worm cutouts to make into bookmarks. Could write "I'm a Bookworm" on the bookmarks.
Easel - over sized cut outs of worms, various shades of brown paint
Play Dough garlic press and other play dough tools that make 'worms'
show kids how to make worms by rolling the dough. Have Easter grass to lay the worms in?
Science Center/ Discovery - Worm Habitats: Give the children a 6x6 inch cardboard piece to paint brown. Glue on fringed green paper to make it look like grass and the brown is underground. Then have the kids put pieces of cooked and moist spaghetti to show how worms make tunnels. Talk about worm habitats. Once the spaghetti dries it will become stiff and will stay stuck to the paper.
Puzzles/Manipulatives - Fine motor activity ~ using chopsticks, have kids transfer 'worms' from one container to another. Could use either pretend fishing worms, cooked noodles, or pieces of string.
Closing Circle: What is something you learned about worms today? Now we are going to release our worms back into the outdoor worm farm. Why is it important to put the worms back outside?
A great extension would be to have an indoor worm farm so the children to continue to learn about worms.
Literature Connections:
Cronin, Doreen. Diary of a Worm.
Himmelman, John. An Earthworm's Life.
Llewellyn, Claire. Earthworms.
Loewen, Nancy. Garden Wigglers: Earthworms in Your Backyard.
Additional Online Resources:
More ideas for Worm Books - http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/worms/books.php
Wiggle Worm Skill Game - http://kreativeactivities.blogspot.com/2012/02/wiggle-worm.html
Teddy Tunnel idea, could transform into Worm tunnels
http://preschoolpowolpackets.blogspot.com/2012/03/teddy-tunnel-strengthening-coordination.html
Experiment to test what type of habitat worms prefer
http://www.brennaphillips.com/worm-habitat-experiment
Worm Songs - http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/reschool_themes/worms/songs.htm
Amazing unit on worms!
http://mamabeefromthehive.blogspot.com/2012/03/ww-worm-day-preschool-style.html
