On the 18th of Feb 2014 we organised a visit from Linda Kenworthy from Manningham Council to visit our children in our 3yr old kinder room otherwise known as the green room. This visit was part of our intentional teaching program focusing on sustainability.

Before Linda’s visit we began reading children a book titled “My Wiggly Worms” which teaches children about worms such as what they can eat and what they can’t eat. Why worm farms are good for our environment and where they should be kept. This book gave the children some basic background information about worms and helped get the children talking about the worms and feed their interest, as well as ready them for Linda’s visit.

Linda Kenworthy has visited our centre several times before and her chat with the children has captivated the children and always been age appropriate. It is worth while calling your local council and finding out what resources they have available for children and best of all Manningham provided this service for free as well as providing the worms and materials needed to set up your worm farm.

Linda arrived at 9:30am to speak with our children who sat eagerly in a semi circle for Linda’s session. Linda brought with her a very informative book that taught the children lots of different information such as what types of worms are used in the worm farm, what colour their blood is, how many hearts they have, what they eat and don’t eat, how they move, breathe, eat, lay eggs and how long they live for. Upon request Linda then emailed us the book which we were then able to share with our green room families for the children to continue talking about at home.
After Linda’s story Linda added the worms to our worm farm for the children to see and each child was given the opportunity to hold the worms. More than three quarters of our children held worms and we asked the children questions such as ‘What do they feel like?’, ‘Are they cold or hot?’, and ‘How do they move?’, ect.

We then moved the worm farm to it’s permanent location outside in the children’s play yard. To support this experience with the children we continued talking to the children about the facts the children learnt about the worms. It was amazing what the children have learnt and the information that they have retained for Linda’s visit which has also been supported by their families at home with the information book shared from Manningham Council.

With our centre being a long hour day care with a kitchen on premise our worms are never short of something to eat. Our centre now runs a roster with interested children and age groups given the opportunity to feed the worms and explore the worm farm. This integrates sustainable practices into our everyday experiences here at Creative Play Early Learning Centre as well as setting up the children with long term sustainability practices that have and are becoming the normal for the children. Best of all this experience has been shared with the children’s families which means it is spreading to the greater community.