My students need 10 worm kits for each grade level to learn about the benefits of worms in the creation of healthy soil as we start a school wide sustainability initiative.
Healthy food choices are avaliable to our students. Why don't they make them? When faced with food choices why do our students often select the ones that are least healthy? The communities they live in are filled with fast food, high sugar, overprocessed, chemically laden food choices.
My students attend an urban K-8 public school with a population of slightly over 600 students.
They come from a variety of different countries and over 16 different languages are spoken! Our students are kind, caring and accepting of each other and the differences among them due to their unique backgrounds. The students typically spend their entire K-8 career at our school, very few leave before completing 8th grade. This lack of mobility allows us to develop relationships with our students that contribute to their success and growth.
My Project
My project will engage students by using worms as a basis for studying gardening, sustainability and healthy food choices. From K-4 through 8th grade, students will learn about locally grown, healthy food, with each grade level building on the concepts learned before. Hopefully, they will use their knowledge to make better choices with regard to the food they purchase and eat. The worms will be a starting point to show students how simple and easy it can be to grow healthy and tasty food in nutrient rich soil created by our squiggly friends. These small kits will be the perfect size for classroom study.
Diabetes and obesity are huge problems in urban schools.
Students aren't exposed to a healthy diet and therefore make poor choices. Physical education and exercise are lost when reading and math are the focus of testing. By incorporating lessons on how worms create healthy soil and how we can grow healthy, tasty foods with that soil, we will provide students with the knowledge and tools to use in their life. Worms make the soil, we grow the vegetables and students learn healthy options!
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Suminski and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
