Let’s Celebrate : Our Earth

“Take care of the earth and she will take care of you.” -unknown.

We received an amazing Earth Day Science kit from MyEduCrate. In this crate we received a booklet that included 7 different experiments, magnetic poetry kit, everything needed to make a Terrarium, and Life As We Know It book. Children learn best when taught things through hands on activities and MyEduCate nailed it. Every month MyEduCrate provides children with surprising educational crates that are filled with hands on learning. These crates are recommended for children between the ages of 8-12. The joy of receiving an subscription box in the mail is a pretty cool feeling, even for mom.  Visit www.myeducrate.com for information and for pricing.

Kalanchoe Pinnata (Air Plant) and Open Terrarium:

This was our favorite. It is so easy to make an open terrarium. First get an open glass jar. Then place gravel, moss, soil, and your plant. Our Kalanchoe Pinnata was not looking so healthy when we received it but once we placed it in its open terrarium it looked very healthy and happy in its new home. 🙂

 

Perfect planter and planting beans:

What a great way to recycle and reuse plastic water bottles. Cut the plastic bottle in half. Place a hole in the cap. Place the string through the hole. Turn the bottle upside down and add soil and the seeds. The only down side to plastic bottles is that they are not heavy enough and will tip over if it is windy.

 

 

Acid Rain?

We learned that acid is a type of liquid and while some are harmless others can be very dangerous. We placed vinegar in two separate cups. To one of the cups we added the chalk and to the other a seashell. Acids eat away on earth materials such as limestone and metals. Seashells and chalk are both made out of limestone.

 

 

Still Polluted:

What a great way to learn the importance of keeping our waters clean because once we have contaminated our water it is hard to make it clean. Place pepper into water. Get another empty glass and place filter on top of it. Pour the polluted water (water with pepper) through the filter and into the glass.

The water will seem clear but when drinking the water you can still taste the pepper.

 

Red worms ate my garbage:

This was not included in the subscription box but we thought this went very well with the Earth theme.

About Red worms:

Worms need moister, they breath through their skin. They can not tolerate too much water because they could drown. That is why we see them come out when it is raining hard. Worms also need air.

To start we used a small clear container box which we bought at the dollar store. We made holes on the bottom and on the top sides of the plastic container. We filled the container with dirt, our organic kitchen waste, and shredded paper or newspaper. We covered it with parchment paper.

What you need is a container. You want your container to be shallow (8 to12 ” deep) because red worms are surface feeders.

It is not ideal to have a clear bin however I wanted my kiddos to see the worms better this way. You want to keep your worms in a shaded area.
We are planning on making our own wooden worm bin in the near future.

This is a great way to show children how important worms are and how worms eat our garbage and then make really great fertilization which will help our plants grow better.

This is known as vermicomposting.