Food Recycling and Composting Teachers` Pack

Composting and Food Recycling
Education Pack for Nursery – Primary 2
Contents
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Information for teachers p2-p4
Food recycling and composting nursery rhymes p5-p7
Worm story p8-p13
Colouring sheets p14-p15
Activity sheet p16
Contact us:
01224 219281 or 08456 08 09 19*
wasteandrecycling@aberdeencity.gov.uk
www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/wasteandrecycling
www.facebook.com/recycleforaberdeen
*The only charge for this call will be your phone company’s access charge.
Nursery-P2
Information for teachers: Composting - Nature’s way of
recycling our food
We throw away about 630,000 tonnes of food and drink from our homes
every year in Scotland. This food waste amounts to a third of total
household waste. We actually throw away more food each year than we
do packaging.
The main reasons why we throw away good food are that we cook or prepare too much or
that we don't use it up in time. The foods that are most commonly wasted are fresh fruit
and vegetables especially salad, as well as drinks and bakery items such as bread.
Not all food can be eaten as there will always be things like peelings, bones, egg shells etc.
But we don’t have to throw these in the bin!
Composting is nature's way of recycling.
Composting at home is a natural process that doesn’t cost a
lot of money to set up. It transforms food and garden waste
into compost which is a useful product for the garden as it is
full of good nutrients. Everything from fruit and vegetable
peelings to teabags, toilet roll tubes, newspapers and
eggshells can be composted. Take care when composting
cooked food, meat or fish, however, as these can attract pests and create bad smells.
When food waste is buried in landfill, there is very little air or water around the organic
waste. Only anaerobic organisms are able to live there so they have to break all the waste
down. They take a long time to do this. As they break the waste down, they create a harmful
greenhouse gas called Methane that, when released into our planet’s atmosphere, causes
damage. Greenhouse gases are affecting our weather systems and this is called climate
change.
When food waste is composted above ground, with lots of air
about, there are different aerobic creatures that help to break
the waste down. This process is much faster and hardly any
methane is produced so it’s better for the planet. There is also
the benefit that after about nine to twelve months, you get a free
natural fertiliser for your plants to help them grow strong and
healthy.
Compost is full of nutrients needed in your garden. It will improve the condition of your soil
and your plants and flowers will love it!
Composting means we can harness the natural process of decomposition to provide us with
a great product to use in our gardens. And it is really simple to do.
You need to add equal amounts of ‘green’ and ‘brown’ materials.
'Greens' are quick to rot and contain important nitrogen and moisture. They tend to be
softer materials.
'Browns' are slower to rot and contain carbon and fibre. They are much drier materials and
allow air pockets to form.
Greens... Nitrogen Rich
These materials are usually moist.
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Green leaves
Weeds before they go to seed
Fruit peels, pulp and seeds
Vegetable peel and scraps
Spoiled out of date food
Grass clippings
Coffee grounds, including the
filter paper
Tea bags
Breads
Cooked pasta and rice
Seaweed
Hamster, rabbit and guinea
pig bedding
Cut flowers
Browns...Carbon Rich
These materials are usually dry.
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Dry leaves
Evergreen needles
Dried brown grass clippings
Bark chips
Straw or hay
Prunings and cuttings
Dryer/vacuum lint
Hair and fur
Bird cage cleanings
Paper
Cardboard
Sawdust
Kitchen towels
Egg shells
Natural corks
If your compost gets too dry, add a little water. If it gets too wet and slimy, add some
scrunched up egg boxes or torn up cardboard boxes.
Keep your compost bin where it will be warm in the sun and try to avoid shaded areas. It
should be in a convenient place so you can add food waste regularly and keep it on bare soil
- not paving - so that the worms can move in easily. Then, sit back and watch it happen
naturally!
You can compost all year round, not just during the summer. The process will just slow
down a bit when it gets colder.
You will know your compost is ready to put on your flower beds when it is a dark brown
colour and smells nice and earthy. It should also be slightly moist and have a crumbly
texture. There may still be pieces of egg shell that you can see but don’t worry - these can
go straight into your garden.
There are lots of creatures in the compost bin. The smallest is the bacteria and the largest,
the snails. There are also special composting worms which are more red and stripy than the
earthworm. All these creatures work together to break down the organic waste and turn it
into compost. It really is nature’s way of recycling our food!
Let’s make sure that no food goes to landfill this year. There are lots of options at home
and at school to recycle your food waste. And remember: try out some of our tips for
reducing food waste as well!
Useful websites for further information:
http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/waste/recycling/rub_home_composting.asp
http://scotland.lovefoodhatewaste.com/
http://www.recyclenow.com/facts-figures/how-it-recycled/food-waste
http://www.keenanrecycling.co.uk/
Keywords: composting, decay, environment, fertiliser, food waste, greenhouse gases,
landfill, methane, nature, nutrients, organic, recycling, rot.
Food Recycling and Composting Nursery Rhymes
To the tune of: ‘The wheels on the bus’
The worms in the compost bin
Go munch, munch, munch
Munch, munch, munch
Munch, munch, munch
The worms in the compost bin
Go munch, munch, munch
And make us compost
The mummy in the kitchen
Says save that food
Save that food
Save that food
The mummy in the kitchen says
Save that food
It’s for the compost
The daddy in the garden
Says greens and browns
Greens and browns
Greens and browns
The daddy in the garden says
Greens and browns
Makes good compost
To the tune of ‘I’m a little teapot’
I’m a little compost bin
Short and stout
He’s my cauliflower
And here’s my sprouts
Put all your food waste in
And watch compost come out
To the tune of ‘Mary, Mary quite contrary’
Mary, Mary
Quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With compost heaps
And worms for keeps
No food waste is thrown away
To the tune of ‘I’m a little teapot’ The children can wiggle their fingers like a worm.
I’m a little wiggle worm, watch me go!
I can wiggle fast, or very very slow.
I wiggle all around, and then back I go,
Down into the compost bin to the home I know.
The Compost Bin Critters Song by Ann Smith to the tune of ‘Have you seen the muffin man’
We all live in a compost bin
A compost bin
A compost bin
We all live in a compost bin
There’s food for us inside there
There are earthworms in the compost bin
The compost bin
The compost bin
There are earthworms in the compost bin
And slugs and ants and beetles
There are centipedes in the compost bin
The compost bin
The compost bin
There are centipedes in the compost bin
They eat up other critters
It’s dark and warm in the compost bin
The compost bin
The compost bin
It’s dark and warm in the compost bin
No birds get in to eat us
(Song taken from the Bugs Bugs Bugs! Resource Kit)
by Nicola Blight
Jess goes to a school not very far from here. Every morning after break she is
asked by her teacher to empty a small green plastic bin of rubbish into a much
bigger green plastic bin, on the edge of the school field by the hedge. She is not
sure why she does it, but she always does what her teacher tells her!
One day, when she was emptying her small green plastic bin into the big green
plastic bin she noticed a worm eating an apple core. Jess decided to take a closer
look.
‘Hello, what’s on the menu today?’
Jess looked around to see who it was. But there was no one there.
‘Heellooo’
Jess still couldn’t see anyone.
‘It is me, down here, on the apple core.’
Jess looked into the big green bin and saw where the voice was coming from. It
was coming from the worm sitting on the apple core.
‘I have never heard a worm talk before,’ said a very surprised Jess.
‘Ah’ said the worm ‘I am no ordinary worm. I am Wendell the Wizard
Worm a distant cousin of The Great Harry Rotter, and I live in this
compost bin.’
‘Compost bin?’ asked Jess ‘What is compost?’
‘Everyday you empty your small green plastic bin in
here and you don’t know what compost is?’
Wendell was almost annoyed.
www.littlerotters.org.uk
So Wendell explained to Jess what compost is.
‘It is a lovely rich brown soil-like material which works wonders feeding
the flowers and vegetables in your garden.’
‘But, I don’t put that in your compost bin,’ said Jess ‘I put the school’s
fruit and vegetable scraps in there’.
‘That’s true,’ Wendell said, ‘but then I am a wizard worm and what do
wizards do? Yes, MAGIC.’
‘Magic, I believe in magic, tell me about it?’Jess at this point completely
forgot that she was talking to a worm and normally worms don’t talk.
Wendell told Jess about the other wonderworkers in his compost bin.
‘There are millions of minute microbes in here. Some of these
creatures are so small you can’t see them. These are ‘the invisibles’
and include the bacteria whose bewitching ways feed on other little
creatures in the process of breaking down your orange peelings. The
fungi use their trickery and spread their spellbinding fibrous strands
as they feed on the rotting bits of plants.’
‘So if there are ‘invisibles’ are there ‘visibles’, ones you can see?’
asked Jess.
Mike & The Microbes
www.littlerotters.org.uk
Sid the Slobbering Slug
‘Oh yes Jess, you are catching on quick.
Look over there it’s Sid the Slobbering Slug
sucking the last juices out of that apple
core.There behind the banana skin the
mysterious mites and
Clair the Clever
Centipede scamper around cleaning up after
the slobbering slugs.’
‘All this activity is part of the decomposing process, where all materials
that once lived rot down to make compost.’
‘So Wendell, what do worms do?’
Jess asked her new friend.
‘Ah, I was just getting to that. We are the biggest and the best.
Worms wave their magic wand and cast spells that turn your fruit and
vegetables scraps into compost…well actually,’ said Wendell ‘I will let
you into a secret, what we really do is eat it.’
I wonder what Wendell’s favourite food is, Jess thought to herself. She had an
idea.
‘See you tomorrow Wendell,’ said Jess as
she headed back to the classroom. She was
already late.
Clair the Clever Centipede
www.littlerotters.org.uk
The following day Jess returned to the compost bin. This time she had brought
some of her friends with her who all wanted to meet Wendell the Wizard Worm
and see the magic bin Jess had told them about. Jess knew it was a magic bin
because how ever many times she emptied the small green plastic bin into it,it
never seemed to get much fuller.
You see decomposing makes all our waste
smaller.
They knew worms liked their apple cores and other fruit
peelings, but worms must eat more than that.
Nina had brought some potato peelings and onion skins
from the kitchen.
‘Would Wendell and the other wrigglers like these?’
‘Yes, we like any uncooked vegetable scraps’ said the worms as they
started to chomp.
Deevish had brought the used tea bags from the
staff room and some crushed eggshell.
‘I bet the worms won’t eat these.’
‘Oh yes we will’ said Wendell.
www.littlerotters.org.uk
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Chris and Charlie tried to put their empty cheese and onion crisp packets and
yoghurt cartons into the compost bin.
‘Oh no you don’t,’ came a voice from within the
bin, ‘worms wont eat plastic.’
‘What about our coke cans?’ they asked
Wendell.
‘Take them to be recycled, we can’t do anything with them here,’
he replied.
Another of Jess’s friends Darly helped look after the school garden. Could she
put her weeds and other bits of plants into the compost bin?
‘No problem with those,’ replied the worms altogether.
The last of Jess’s friends Ellie brought with her some of the paper hand towels,
which they use in the classroom.
‘Paper is made from trees, I think Wendell and the other wrigglers will
eat these.’
‘Well done, we like a nice balanced diet, this is something a bit drier
to balance out all the other wet stuff.’
‘Thank you everyone we will all work our magic on this lot and see you
soon.’ said Wendell as he disappeared under the apple core.
www.littlerotters.org.uk
Wendell the Wizard Worm’s reputation spread
throughout the school. Soon everyone, even the
teachers, were putting only tasty worm food in the
small green plastic bin which are then emptied into the
compost bin.
After several months they emptied the compost bin of
compost and spread this on their flowerbeds, hoping
to help make the flowers grow.
And do you know that year they grew the tallest
sunflowers and tastiest strawberries that anyone had
ever known.
Jess and her friends were responsible for emptying
the small bins into the compost bin and making sure
Wendell and all the microbes always had enough food.
They called themselves The Little Rotters Club. When they went to the compost
bin they listened out for Wendell, sometimes he stopped for a chat, other times
they only caught a glimpse of his pointy hat.
But do you know, every time they listened very carefully they could hear the
distant murmurings of the worms as they did their wonderwork, eating away and
making compost.
So next time you see a worm listen very carefully and you may just hear it talk.
www.littlerotters.org.uk
Colour in all of the fruit and
veg. They will go into the
food caddy below and turn
into magic compost!
Colour in our friend Norm the composting worm.
Recycling our food and garden waste is great for our
friends the worms. Set up a compost bin at home and at
school – it’s easy! Why not give it a try?
Can you help our
composting worm
through the maze
so he can lunch in
the compost bin
below?
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