Wiggly Worms: A Garden Science Activity Guide

Can I just start by saying… I LOVE WORMS. I know, I know… they are icky and wet and slimy and gross to so many people, but I love worms! Papa Bear even jokes that he doesn’t get me nice jewelry because I am known for having “worm hands.” That is why I am so excited to bring you a guide to worms as part of my gardening with kids series. I wanted to put together some quick easy ideas you could do with your kids when they find their first worm (or second, or third…)

worms lesson guide

I am so sad to admit, that when I started to write this post, I thought I had all of my teaching archives to use. I sat down, searched, searched some more… but came up empty handed. All I have are the memories, no pictures, no proof. Instead of scrapping this post, I thought I could round-up some great resources for you and tell you a tad about what I have done.

Reading about Worms

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There are so many fun books about worms that are great for all ages. I have provided you with some of my favorite books that you can get from the library, local book store or order online from Amazon. You can see the whole collection of books on my Worm Wish List.

My Favorite Non Fiction Books

worm book worm book for kids

My Favorite Fiction Books

worm books for kids recycling books for kids


Although, it isn’t actually reading about worms…

You can actually read WITH worms like The Natural Homeschool did with their Worm Alphabet Lesson.

Growing Book By Book has a great unit to do with the book Mud!

IGame Mom has a great list of apps to encourage learning about science.

Learning About Worms

Science Lessons, Unit Plans, Math and More

When I was in the classroom, I did an entire unit on All things Worms. I never knew there were so many cool science lessons you could do with worms. We compared them, measured them, tested different habitats for them, learned about the life cycle and even found itty bitty baby worms. (By the way, itty bitty worms are so cute and tiny and the eggs are pretty cool too!)

Stem Mom has an entire unit of Worm Lessons and Activities, complete with a Google Doc of resources.

Wormy Wednesdays from The Usual Mayhem includes 4 weeks of lessons that culminate in the same shared Google Document with Stem Mom.

I love this Worm Day printable pack from First Grade Blue skies.

We Made That has a great inside  Earth Worm Habitat  .

Julie at Creekside Learning has a fabulous Worm House.

You can even find full printable lessons and units from StopWaste.Org and California’s Waste Management Division.

Worm Composting

A guide about all things worms would not be complete without some information on worm composting. I have done composting with children as young as 3 and the result is the same… children love it!
Worm Composting

My favorite store bought compost bin is the Worm Factory. It comes with instructions, a coupon for your worms (you do not want to use worms from your garden… They will escape!), and all the materials to get you started.

Sensory Bins

When I taught preschool, we would empty our water table, fill it up with dirt, fake worms, buckets, scoops, fake flowers and let the children explore. Sensory bins are a great way to encourage language development, fine motor skill practice and provide children with the sensory input they need.

Bambini Travel has a great post about Making Mud, that is a great starter for sensory play.

The Measured Mom has a great Ooey Gooey Sensory Bin that is edible and fun.

I love this Chocolate Scented Cloud Dough sensory bin from I Heart Crafty Things where they dig for worms as part of our 12 Months of Sensory Dough Series.

While Mama Miss uses bugs in her amazing Bug Hunt Sensory Bin… her unique sensory bin filler would be a great idea for using with fake wiggly worms.

Worm Snacks

What would a Worm Unit be without yummy treats? One of my favorite things to make was an edible compost bin. It was a blast and really solidified the learning for the children. I hope to find those pictures and tutorial soon, or maybe redo it with the boys. For now, I have found these great snack ideas for worms.

Gummy Worm Experiment from We Made That

You can use Wikki-How to learn how to make a tub of your own wiggly worms.

We loved making dirt pudding cups like the ones found at Oh Nuts.

Creating with Worms

While you don’t actually want to create WITH the worms, you can create with your children using worms as inspiration. We used noodles, yarn, and ribbons to create worm art. We even made a replica of the worm life cycle using noodles various noodles. While doing a unit on worms, its a great time to incorporate any garden art such as vegetable stamping, coffee filter flowers or rainbow crafts.

Mamas Like Me has a great post about Worm Painting.

You could make a Worm Puppet like the ones from Craft Bits.

I never would have thought to freeze paint and create art like Crayon Box Chronicles...  how cool would it be to do this with wiggly worms?

You can even take a Rainbow Nature Walk like Planet Smarty Pants!

Okay, so I might have gone a tad overboard with worm resources. I told you that I LOVE WORMS. I have had so much fun gathering and collecting this list, that now I can’t wait to get my hands in the mud!

Do you have any more resources for learning about worm? I would love to hear all about them.

Still Looking For More Science Fun?

    Simple Science Guide for a Year of Science Experiments for Kids Rocks and minerals Scratch Test Starburst Rock Cycle

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25 thoughts on “Wiggly Worms: A Garden Science Activity Guide”

  1. Thanks for sharing our Worms unit! Darci, Andrea and I all did different lessons and it was so much fun to see each other’s posts every week!

    1. I absolutely love your insect sensory painting. We will be doing that too.. but if you know my boys, you know what we will be adding instead of bugs 😉

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  3. I love worms too! I’ve been thinking about doing a composting bin. Thanks for the inspiration. And, thank you for sharing a link to my Mud post. We just came inside from playing in the mud!

  4. Dayna, what a wormy recourse! Love it! I will start liking them from little bit more from now on…

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  7. This is great! Pinned and shared! Thanks so much for including our worm painting! I can’t wait to try some of these out with my worm-loving boys 🙂

  8. I love worms too! 🙂 When we did our sensory bin last month and learned about worms I was so upset that the ground was too cold outside to go out and play with some actual worms. We’ll definitely have to revisit this and do some of these activities in your post. Thanks so much for including a link to my worm sensory bin! 🙂

  9. I don’t think you went overboard at all! I know that as soon as we find my garden under all the snow we will also be finding worms 🙂 They are a favourite creature around our house too! I only started blogging in September, so I don’t have any worm posts yet, but I’m sure there will be some this summer! Thank you for sharing all these great resources!

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