Forest soil communities and ecosystems 

4. Potworm's lunch

This task deals with the life of an important decomposer in forest soil by making your own potworms and feeding them. Potworms have a transparent skin layer through which the food they eat can be seen. In forest soil, earthworms eat decaying organic matter and bacteria, thus helping to maintain soil looseness and health.  
In this activity, students get to use their imagination and experience the world of worms through hands-on activities. 

Materials:

• Fabric for the worm's "body." For example, you can use tubes sewn from old lace or light curtains, or even old tights. It is essential that the fabric is transparent. We made strips that were about 25 cm wide and just over a meter long. 
• Food for the worm: Outdoors: leaves, twigs, and other loose material. Indoors: crumpled newspaper, recycled fabric scraps, etc.  
• Possibly string for making details 
• Anything else you want to decorate the worm with? 

Task:
If you have sewing machines or sergers available, you can start the task by sewing the tubes for worms bodies from the fabric. When the bodies are complete, the task is to find possible fillings for the worm – what would they like to eat? When the ground is unfrozen, we recommend doing this task outdoors. This allows students to collect and feed their potworms as close to their natural habitat as possible. Let your imagination run wild and work together to figure out what the worms would like to eat. However, remember to respect living plants. 
Tie the ends of the tube with knots or a separate string. At this stage, you can also wrap the string around the stick to form segments or joints, or decorate the worm in other ways.  
Finally, the creators can come up with names for their potworms, and the ready worms are gathered for a joint worm exhibition. Students are usually excited to share more about the worms they have made.