Worm Walk

In the last couple days, the skies over the Portland area have again opened up and reminded us we live in a temperate rain forest. On these HEAVY rain days, if there is a break in the rain, I do my best to get outside right away because the rain could be back at any minute. This is a quick prep outside activity that is just for these type of moments. On previous walks Em and I have observed worms are out in full force all over the road way; I used this as an opportunity to explore the intelligences on a Worm Walk!

These are the supplies you'll need: a clipboard, paper, and markers. Simple!! In front of my child I set the paper up. This is very crucial modeling!! Linquistic, logical-mathematical, interpersonal, and spatial intelligences are at work here; Literacy modeling, asking questions, and beginning math skills all happen in this quick minute. As I began to write the words, I said to Em "Worm starts with what letter? Worm, w,w,w,Worm." She doesn't have this sound mastered yet so she wasn't able to answer me. Thats OK though, I just answered it for her, "Worm starts with W". I preceded to write a W, followed by the rest of the letters. I said the name of each letter as I wrote it. When we got to the word 'walk', I once again asked, "what letter does walk start with? Walk, (start saying the sound)w,w,w, walk." This time she got it!! After a high five, I preceded writing the rest of the word 'walk'. After writing worm walk, I wrote the question, "How many worms?", I simply said to her, "This is the question we are answering on our walk". Lastly, I explained to her how we were going to keep track and count the worms with something called tally marks. I demonstrated by saying, " If we see a worm , make a mark like this. It means one worm. When we get back home we will count all of them to see how many worms there were altogether." Alas, we were off and she was READY to go!

Here she is in action!

More action, I love action shots!

We talked about how worms move, curl up in protective response(she tried to stomp one),why some worms were smashed on the roadway-which led to a brief dead and alive conversation, and why worms were out on the roadway now vs when it is drier. The naturalist, bodily-kinesthetic,interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligences being exercised.

Of course, we had fun too! Lately, Lil' Em is obsessed with her tongue.

The results!! & yes, it started to rain on us. The evidence is on the paper! Back at home we counted the tallies one by one while pointing at each one. I modeled writing the number 16 on the answer line.

~Happy Worm Adventures