Worm and composting activities are perfect for kids who love botany and gardening like Sunshine.

These topics are also great to introduce on Earth Day when kid are looking for different ways to help our planet.

Our Montessori-inspired Worm and Composting Activities for Kids with Free Printable are sure to be a hit.

Worms and dirt never looked so good!

Montessori-inspired Worm and Compost Activities for Kids with Free Printable

Types of Dirt Nomenclature and Description Cards

Dirt looks different depending on where you live. In this activity we discussed different types of dirt, how they feel and look.

This activity is a great way to introduce pH levels for those who are ready to understand that. These cards are also a great way to introduce composting. Different types of dirt need different layers of compost to be at their best for planting.

Source: The printable for this activity is part of our Composting Printable Pack.

Layers of Soil Cupcake Activity

When putting together worm and composting activities, I wanted to find a fun way to present the layers of soil. There were so many fun cake ideas, but making an entire cake with so many layers was not something I was looking forward to. Instead I made cupcake layers.

Sunshine and I started out by making diet-friendly vanilla cupcakes.

We made a vanilla cupcake to represent our bedrock layer.

Vanilla cupcake batter mixed with diet-friendly chocolate sandwich cookies worked perfectly for our parent material layer.

To make subsoil, I added a little cocoa to the vanilla cupcake batter.

Topsoil was represented by vanilla cupcake batter and more cocoa.

Our surface layer was made by mixing dark cocoa with the vanilla cupcake batter.

Diet-friendly frosting was dyed green to represent grass.

Once the cupcakes were baked and cooled, I was able to cut each one into three layers so we could complete the activity three times per set of cupcakes.

Sunshine would place her layers on top of each other one by one, using diet-friendly chocolate frosting in between each layer. She would then top it off with the green layer of frosting.

Source: The printable for this activity is from our Composting Printable Pack.

Parts of an Earthworm Nomenclature Cards

Worms and compost go hand in hand. One can't really learn about one and not the other. This was the perfect activity to introduce worms.

It was so fascinating to Sunshine to learn which end of the worm was the tail, and which end was the head. She did such a great job finding the clitellum on worms that she found digging in our yard.

The cards in this activity do such a great job explaining segments and bristles.

Sunshine would match up the pictures with words, identifying the matching part on the chart provided.

Source: The printable for this activity is part of our Composting Printable Pack.

Types of Worms Nomenclature and Description Cards

Once Sunshine could identify what makes a worm a worm, it was time to introduce her to different types of worms.

She loved learning about all of the facts about each type of worm and even brought out a ruler to understand the size of each one.

Source: The printable for this activity is part of our Composting Printable Pack.

Life Cycle of a Worm Activity

One may not think there's so much to learn about worms, but I assure you there is! Both Sunshine and I really enjoyed learning about the life cycle of a worm with this activity.

It was so much fun identifying egg cocoons and juvenile worms as we were digging in the dirt.

There are many ways to use this printable. We chose to add some art fun to it.

Sunshine would match up the parts of a worm figures to the control provided. She would then use the blank life cycle page provided to draw her own life cycle of a worm. This activity was so enjoyable to her.

Source: The printable for this activity is part of our Composting Printable Pack.

Worm Weather Book Rhyming Activity

Worm Weather is such an adorable book filled with rhymes. It provides a fabulous opportunity to work on rhyming words, but also CVC words, consonant blends, and more.

Sunshine and I would read the book together. Once we finished reading the book, we would match rhyming word cards together.

This was definitely challenging for Sunshine, but because she loved the book, she was willing to challenge herself.

Source: The printable for this activity can be found at ABC's of Literacy.

Compost Bin and Garbage Bin Sort

A true gardener at heart, this compost bin and garbage bin sort was Sunshine's favorite activity on the shelves. She loved sorting the cards each day.

Once she learned what items worked as compost, she started collecting them around the house to add to her compost bin and then to her herb garden in the yard.

Source: The printable for this activity is part of our Composting Printable Pack.

Compost Scavenger Hunt

To help Sunshine keep track of what she could put in her compost bin, we used this Compost Scavenger Hunt sheet.

The printable also includes a Compost Checklist format, for those that don't want to go on a scavenger hunt for garbage. Lol.

Source: The printable for this activity is a Subscriber's Only Freebie. For your free copy, follow the directions at the bottom of this post.

Compost: A Family Guide to Making Soil from Scraps

This book was on our Montessori shelves as well. We would read a few pages a day to go along with our activities. Sunshine loved it and had so much fun with the bonuses included in the book.

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