Worm Farming

We went to Mount Coot-tha Botanical Gardens last week for the Far Out Forest Festival, and this idea was inspired by some activities they held for children relating to worms. 

We made some pink play-dough, and Finn and Evie rolled out a whole family of worms, and placed them in a their own Worm Farm - a little plastic container (or a cardboard box) previously filled with sticks, grass and leaves. 

Then we went into the garden to look for real worms (the compost bin was a good start). 

We looked and gently held some worms and talked about how they are important to the health of plants and soil. They breakdown food and plant matter, fertilize and create airways for drainage and aeration of the soil. They have also been around for 120 million years according to Wikipedia.  

Playdough Dudes

Finn had a lot of fun creating little figures out of play-dough using mini paddle-pop sticks to join limbs and create features (such as hair).

He used a few plastic eyes to finish off his creation.

Play Dough

I was reading about the importance of  play dough in a fantastic book called "Rapunzel's Supermarket', by Ursula Kolbe. 


On page 22: " Give children ample time to get the feel of dough and clay without cookie cutters or rolling pins. Toddlers love to make forms they can squeeze, roll, bend, twist and flatten. If they are not distracted by tools, they quickly acquire skills- a language of hands". 

A good reminder for me, as I tend to let finn go crazy with his box of play dough tools. 

This is the recipe I use for play dough which works every time. If you use 'cream of tartar' it helps preserve the dough for up to 6 months. 

Dough can be used for many children's activities. We borrowed this idea from Play School the other day, and made a little garden using the dough as the ground (on Play school they made a fragrant garden with cinnamon sticks, and herbs like rosemary). For our interpretation Finn added sticks, leaves and rocks that he found on a walk. 

We have also had fun making bridges across two dough islands, and adding little plastic animals to make jungles, and paddle pop sticks to make animal zoos.