Ms. Connor's Students Make a Compost Bag

A Compost Bag

Today Ms. Connor's 2nd graders started their study of composting, planted some seeds and sampled a persimmon.  We add compost to our garden beds prior to any planting cycle to enrich the soil.

We read one of two books to start the lesson: Kids Can Compost or Compost Stew. Both discuss the ingredients that go into making compost.

A display table in the teaching area held cardboard, toilet paper, fruit peelings, egg shells, soil, coffee grounds, leaves and small sticks, newspaper, metal screws and pieces of a plastic cup. The students took turns putting the items in a quart sized ziplock bag and added air before we sealed the bag. They will monitor the bag on a weekly basis and see what changes, i.e. what rots, and what doesn't. Some items such as plastic and screws were added to emphasize that these items don't rot or decompose.

After writing in their garden journals, the children planted lettuce and carrot seeds in their bed, watered and sampled slices of persimmon.