Worm Charming

Worm Charming Organiser’s Card About the activity This activity is designed to get children thinking about worms and vibrations. The town of Willaston, Cheshire is having a worm charming championship. Can the children investigate how to get the worms out of the ground? Through this activity you will support your group to: • Think about how to create vibrations WORM to CHARMING charm worms • Experiment with different ways of charming worms out of the ground • Record their results and present them to share with the group Kit list • Buckets of water for wetting the ground. • String, metre rulers, pegs to secure string in squares on the field. You could use large PE hoops or similar instead. • Containers of damp soil, moss or compost to put the charmed worms in. • Timers • Selection of objects for the children to choose from – e.g. garden forks or old kitchen forks to twang, drums or other musical instruments which can be banged. Musical instruments that can be blown, rounders bats or similar to hit the ground, trays or something metallic or wooden WORM to CHARMING jump or tap dance on etc. – feel free to use your imagination.

What to do 1. Read the ACTIVITY CARD to familiarise yourself with the activity. You may find worm charming websites helpful too. 2. Check the Kit list and ensure you have the correct resources. You might need to wet the ground in advance if it has been very dry.. 3. Set the scene by discussing the news story with the children. 4. Encourage small teams of children (pairs or threes are best) to decide where and how will they do the worm charming. Some may need extra hints to get started. They could use a worm charming website for ideas. 5. Check that they have thought about making fair comparisons e.g. same area of soil and same amount of time. You could run it as a competition. 6. Remind them about handling the worms gently and keeping the worms and themselves safe. 7. Give out pots of damp soil, a bucket of water and let the worm charming begin! 8. You or the children could take photographs. 9. Encourage the children to look at the worms carefully to find out more about them. 10. Give the children time to share ideas about what happened. 11. Children could record the event through a display of photos or drawings. Alternatively they could create a headline or news story. 12. Ensure that they return the worms safely. 13. There are extra challenges on the ACTIVITY CARD which can be used if there is spare time or if children want to carry on investigating at home and earn a bonus sticker. Things to think about Children may be tempted to tug at the worms before they are out of the soil. It could harm the worms and will not help to remove them. WORM CHARMING Take it further A worm’s skin is sensitive to vibration. Worms move using muscular contractions and bristles on their skin. You can hear the bristles when worms move on paper. An internet search using the words ‘worm charming’ will provide lots of background including the rules of the worm charming competition. There is also a video on the Guinness World Records website. Only use water on the ground. Washing up liquid brings up the worms but this is because it irritates their skin and could kill them.