Week 6 kicked off with lots of teamwork, as we took care of our goats, collectively removed the chicken apron from our chicken, Pearl, and the electric daisy stepped on to the scene (pictured below!) We hope not too many of you got “punked” with this pop-rock like plant! The kids thought it was hilarious because of the buzzing like feeling it leaves in your mouth.
Our theme for week 6 was decomposers, which might seem a little gross, but are soooo important to the farm! We started our week with a talk about mycelium and bacteria and we each swabbed something different around the farm as a group experiment to see what was growing the most bacteria. On Tuesday, Ms. Micaela discussed worm anatomy and we explored the red wiggler , a.k.a. red wriggler, worms from our vermicomposting bin. We gave the worms some food to see what they liked best. I’m a little late adding this write up, but I can tell you that two weeks later the blueberries are still there, and the watermelon is disintegrated, so just like me, they prefer watermelon!
On Wednesday Ms. Fina showed us the compost pile and we took a temperature reading and talked about the thermophilic stage of decomposition. It was very exciting – the compost pile registered at about 95 degrees in the middle! The kids then made their own compost layer drawings as a follow up activity.
On Thursday, Ms Lucy and her assistant director led us all in a play about decomposition. Our main character, Dead Deer Carcass, was amazing, as was the narrator, and Ms. Jazmine even got to fill in for the part of Fly #2! What fun! Children who didn’t wish to participate were respectful audience members, and we all had a great day learning about decomposition involving maggots, flies, bacteria, and scavengers, helping us all to understand the full cycle of life and return to the earth.
On Friday we finished up by looking at our bacteria plates, and took a walk to investigate decomposers on wood. Animal swabs revealed a lot of bacteria, but also fungus and yeast,(ewwww). You can see some interesting growth in the plates, and it was so cool to actually see the colonies! The children also found lots of cool things out in the woods by exploring fallen logs and got to observe decomposition in action!
Week 6 was lots of fun, and the topic surprisingly always leads to lots of oohs and aahs! We thank you again for joining us, and look forward to seeing you again soon!
