The purpose? To see how (and if) worms compost, dig tunnels and mix soils.

While I may not be as thrilled as the kids at the prospect of worms possibly being on the loose in the house, this is really a simple but fun science activity to do with the kids. (And don’t tell the kids, but I think it’s fascinating too!)

How to Make a Worm Jar

If you’d like to try making your own worm jar at home, you’ll need to gather the following:

• a quart size canning jar
• a lid with holes in it
• dirt/soil/hay/grass
• worms
• dark colored felt or paper

1. First, layer a few different types of dirt in the canning jar – rich soil from a garden (or potting soil), lighter sand, mulch and repeat the layers (soil, sand, mulch, soil, sand, etc…).

2. Once the jar is filled, have fun digging for worms outside! Add them to the top of the jar.

3. Add some food for the worms to compost: teeny tiny chopped carrots, celery greens, chopped apples, etc.

4. Make sure the soil is slightly damp. Put the lid on the jar and and wrap it in a piece of dark felt or construction paper so the worms have darkness to work in. You may want to consider putting it inside a cabinet to give it a cool, dark place (just don’t forget about it!).

5. Every few days, for the next several weeks, continue to check on the worm jar and see how your underground friends are doing – and if they are actually working!

6. Use the simple worm jar science notebooking sheet to make predictions and observations on the worms’ activities.

Books for Learning About Worms

Fun Worm Facts

Here are a few things that we’ve had fun learning about worms:

• The only place where earthworms don’t live are in the desert or where the ground is frozen.
• Earthworm poop is called ‘castings’.
• Worms have two layers of muscles ~ one that runs lengthwise and one that runs around, helping its body stretch and contract.
• Worms have a coat of slimy mucus that helps them glide through the dirt.
• Sunlight can kill a worm because they are sensitive to the UV radiation.
• Worms are sensitive to temperature and touch.
• Worms do not have ears, rather they ‘hear’ by sensing vibrations.

Here is a peek at our jar after 3 days. Can you see one of our worm friends near the top of the jar? See how our soil is already mixing? We had to add a little water/moisture to the jar to help the worms out a bit.

After two weeks there were no obvious layers anymore. Our worms had been hard at work mixing and composting our soil. After we observed them, we took them back to our garden and let them do their work around our vegetables. :)

Additional Worm Learning Fun

• Check out this fun Worm Science post from Spell Outloud (has a cute booklet to go along with it!)
• Learn more about worm composting from Granola Mom 4 God
• Here’s a kindergarten worm unit from Stem Mom (lots of links)
• Download a Worm Jar observation sheet

There may be an overload of Halloween candy still in our home. Add in the loot that is sure to come through for Valentine’s Day and that means it’s time for some candy science experiments! This week we had a little fun with sweet tarts, smarties, and threw in a few candy conversation hearts for fun.

Quite truthfully, the kids {and I} felt the entire thing was a bit of a bust, BUT that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t fun. It was still fun to guess what might happen and wait to see if it did.

Experiment #1: Candy vs. Water

For the first experiment we added one piece of each candy type to a glass of water. Predictions on this round ranged from the candy getting darker to having it lose it’s color, expand, or fall apart.

Results: Only our conversation heart did much of anything. It did start breaking down a bit and ‘bleeding’ into the water around it. The smarties and the sweet tarts just hung out in the water and tempted the kids.  They did decide to eat the candy after we pulled it out of the water and it was a bit softer, but otherwise, no change.

Experiment #2: Candy vs. Vinegar

Our second experiment was putting one piece of each candy in a glass of white vinegar. Predictions were that the candy would dissolve and/or break apart. We sat. We waited.

Results: Nada. Zilcho. A little bleeding from the conversation heart again, but otherwise no phenomenal changes or results. Shockingly, the kids didn’t want to eat this candy after it had been in the vinegar.

Experiment #3: Candy vs. Vinegar with Baking Soda

For the third experiment we added a 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda to the white vinegar from the previous experiment. This is where it got a bit more exciting.

Before adding it, the kids made their predictions on what might happen: explosions and a break down of the candy were the answers.

We also added a crushed piece of candy to each cup to see if that might make a difference and then added an extra 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.

Results: The candy was visibly being ‘eaten’ by the mix. Lots of bubbles {and colorful}. The conversation heart again was the clear winner, turning the bubbles into pastel colors and also having all the pieces and the entire heart float to the top of the glass. The smarties and sweet tarts just sat at the bottom of the glass {boring, according to the kids}.

Experiment #4: Candy vs. Baking Soda

For the last experiment, we used plain water and baking soda. Predictions were that not much exciting would happen. The candy was broken up for this round of the experiment as well.

Results: The sweet tarts and smarties did a whole lot of nothing. The conversation hearts decided to float to the top of the water.

Our Conclusions on the Experiments

1. While we were disappointed in how little actually seemed to happen in the first two experiments, part of it could have been due to impatience {let’s try the next one and see if that does any different}. If results weren’t as instantaneous there was a strong desire to move on to the next part of the experiment.
2. The fact that some of the candy was a bit older may also have have contributed to the semi-bust. The one candy that did seem to have the best results, the conversation hearts, were the newest in the batch.
3. Baking soda and vinegar are always fun. Using both of them in the third experiment made all the kids want to make another volcano. The chemical reaction from those two ingredients is just always fun to watch.
4. An experiment bust is dependent on what you were expecting. The kids were hoping for a wide range of results, including immediate disintegration and more ‘spectacular’ results. But just because something doesn’t happen, doesn’t mean the entire process was a bust {ooo – pretty sure there is a life lesson in there…}.

Have you tried any candy experiments lately, or one with Valentine candy? We’re curious if you had different results or a fun one to share with us? We’d love to hear it!

While we didn’t use it this go-round, I found the book Candy Experiments by Loralee Leavitt in my stash after the fact. Next time we’ll be pulling it out to try a few different experiments – hopefully with more exciting results!