This week’s theme is food waste. Our “Growing Minds Day by Day” educational resource lists are designed for families and educators.
Compost
Kids Can Compost
Composting is an easy way to reduce the amount of waste that makes it to the landfill. With this book, learn tips to composting, and how easy it can be for kids to join in on the action.
Grandpa’s Garden
Billy can’t wait to start growing fruits and vegetables in his Grandpa’s garden. Read along as Billy learns all of Grandpa’s gardening tips, and enjoys the fruits (and veggies) of their labor.
Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth
This delightful read will inform young “environmental chefs” about the do’s and don’ts of composting. Mary McKenna Siddals draws you in by mentioning familiar household items that can be composted, but also introduces some not-so-familiar composting substances that will leave students wanting to dig deeper (both figuratively and literally)!
Classroom Composting
Each quarter, ASAP’s Growing Minds co-hosts a school garden meeting with an area school. The winter meeting was held at Hall Fletcher Elementary, a school with an active garden program. Despite it being the middle of December there was still a lot to see and learn.
Garbage Helps our Garden Grow
Illustrated with vibrant photographs, this story explains how food and garden scraps break down into compost. Follow along as a family composts their table scraps (even their old Jack-o-lantern!) in the backyard bin, eventually using the resulting compost to enrich the soil for the spring garden.
Once There Was a Tree
Once there was a tree and now only the stump remains. But who owns that stump? From the large, lumbering bear that uses it to sharpen his claws, to the tiny ants that make it their home, the stump belongs to everyone.
Composting
Each page delves into a different aspect of composting, from the needs of the heap to the decomposers that dwell in compost. Don’t forget to look for fun facts scattered throughout this book and step by step instructions for creating compost in a bag!
Squirmy Wormy Composters
Curious about vermi-composting for your classroom? This book offers an investigative look at worms as decomposers.