OHC Spring Series #9: Earthworms

Outdoor Hour Challenge
Spring Series #9 Invertebrate Study-Earthworms


Inside Preparation Work
Read in the Handbook of Nature Study all about earthworms on pages 422-425 (Lesson 107). This short section is packed with all kinds of interesting facts about earthworms. The lesson on page 424 gives you lots of ways to study the earthworm and I suggest choosing two or three to try during your outdoor time.

Outdoor Hour Time

“Any garden furnishes abundant material for the study of earthworms. They are nocturnal workers and may be observed by lantern or flashlight….For the study of the individual worm and its movements, each pupil should have a worm with some earth upon his desk.”
Handbook of Nature Study, page 424

Take 15 minutes of your outdoor hour time to find a place in your yard to dig for worms. If you have a garden or flower bed, you may be successful in finding earthworms just a few inches down in the soil. Use some of the suggested activities from the lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study to carefully observe your earthworms.

Follow-Up Activity:
Allow time for a nature journal entry. You may wish to include the following things in your entry:

• How does an earthworm crawl? Does it have legs?
• How long is your earthworm?
• Examine the segments of the earthworm and draw them in your nature journal.
• What color is your earthworm?
• Can you find the head and the tail of the earthworm?
• Where did you find your earthworm? Can you find its home?
• Do you know why earthworms are important?

You can use the notebook page provided with Spring Series ebook, a blank nature journal from the sidebar of my blog, or your own blank nature journal to record you observations and sketches. Don’t forget to sketch and label your earthworm.

More Earthworm Links

• Worm World
• My Anatomy-Getting to Know Squirmin’ Herman. This is an excellent source of specific information about the parts of an earthworm.
• Project to try: Quart Jar Worm Farm

Please make sure to come back and post your link on Mr. Linky after completing this challenge and writing your blog entry. I always love to come by and see what you are up to!

If you would like all the Spring Series Challenges in one place, I have an ebook gathered for you to purchase for your convenience. The ebook also contains art and music appreciation plans for the spring months as well as custom notebooking pages for each of the challenges. Please see this entry for more details:

Spring Nature Study with Art and Music Appreciation

Barb-Harmony Art Mom