As our Nursery students settle into the very beginning of their journey at Bernard Zell, they have been preparing to welcome some special guests into our classroom spaces—Red Wiggler composting worms! This has sparked the start of a new study, and we are excited about the learning opportunities it will bring to both our indoor and outdoor classroom environments in tactile and interconnected ways.

Over the last few school years, the Nursery classrooms have been practicing daily composting of leftover lunch, snack, and paper items as part of a schoolwide composting program. Our newest Nursery students began participating in this practice from their very first day, and they have already taken seriously the task of sorting brown bag items (food, paper scraps, paper towels) from black bin items (garbage). To deepen this learning experience, we eagerly embraced the opportunity to build and maintain small-scale classroom worm compost bins.

So far, the students have enjoyed the sensory experience of tearing brown packaging paper into smaller strips to form the lining and bedding for the bins. They’ve also taken turns using a manual hand drill to create air holes in the lids—a great exercise for coordination and core activation. This week, we introduced our worms to their new homes, which was met with great excitement!

This ties beautifully into some of the exploratory experiences we’ve had on our Nature Playground during these first weeks of school. When our Nursery students discovered worms while digging in the dirt with shovels, they gently pulled the worms from the soil and held them in their hands. Other children gathered around to observe the wiggly creatures, using their tiny fingers to touch the worms gently. Teachers handed out magnifying glasses, allowing the students to examine the details of the worms' bodies.

What will the continuation of this worm and composting study look like? We’re not entirely sure, as we are following the children’s natural curiosity and wonder. However, we do know this: on Thursday mornings, we’ll save our fruit and vegetable scraps from snack time, and on Fridays, we’ll feed them to our worms in preparation for Shabbat. And you can be sure we’ll keep digging for those worm friends on the Nature Playground, building stronger, deeper connections within our Nursery community—our kehillah—and reinforcing our roles in caring for one another and for the Earth.