ISBN: 9780385755382
Our Book Club Hour at Thorntree Preparatory School today was all about removing the natural items from our household waste and making compost instead. A few of the children do make compost at home, but many did not even understand why we should do “so much work” to make compost. After an explanation of why our local garbage truck and landfill smells like it does and how to prevent it, and having learned about the nutrients that get put back into the ground by decomposers, the children were keen to tell what they learned.
They learned about
- organic matter
- decomposition and decomposers
- organic fertilizer
- what good compost consists of (greens and browns!)
- nutrients
- how to make, grow and maintain a healthy compost pile
- how to know when your compost pile is ready to use
- how compost helps the ground (especially different types of ground like sand or clay)
- anaerobic and aerobic decomposition
- why it is a good idea to make compost
They were all reluctant to smell the sample of natural compost on display, but after the first courageous boy took a whiff and realized that it was from a healthy pile, the others too discovered the earthy smell of healthy compost.
The book Compost Stew is actually meant for younger kids, but the intermediates loved the illustrations which “look so real”. Rhyming text on beautifully illustrated (collage art) pages, present a lovely informative read about what to include in a compost pile – and lots of new words to grow that vocabulary!
An eager 6th grader wanted to read the story and present the pictures to her friends, and it made for an interesting, interactive session.
We also read the poem Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout would not take the garbage out by Shel Silverstein, which takes a humorous look at piled up household waste, and the children could relate to their own household waste issues.
