|
|
|
COEJL PROGRAM BANK
View Programs
To There it Returns: Compost
COEJL
info@coejl.org
Source: To Till and To Tend - based on a program written by Elisheva Kaufman
|
To There it Returns: Compost At-a-Glance
| | Brief Summary:
|
To help children learn about recycling and what does and does not decompose, and to encourage the synagogue to consider doing its own composting. Using the passage from Ecclesiastes as a point of departure, this program can also open into a larger discussion about how nature can replenish itself through a life cycle of birth-death-rebirth.
|
| Audience:
|
Ages 5-7
Ages 8-10
Ages 11-13
Family/Community
|
| Facility:
|
Community Center
Outdoors (Camp)
Outdoors (Urban/Suburban)
Religious/Day School
Synagogue
|
| Program Type:
|
Educational Program
Game/Hike/Outdoor Activity
|
| Issues:
|
Air/Water/Trees
Baal Tashchit/Waste/Recycling
Shmittah/Land Use/Agriculture
Spiritual Awareness
Sustainability
Tikkun Olam/Stewardship/Values and Ethics
|
| | |
Description
|
1) Collecting ?trash? ---15 minutes
Take the children outdoors. With gloves or small plastic bags on their hands for safety reasons, have them collect items that have been used before (candy wrappers, leaves, apple cores, "garbage"). Ask them to also collect some soil and leaves or grass clippings. When you return to class, have the children talk about what they have collected and how these things have been used by people, plants, or animals in the past, before becoming "garbage."
2) Studying cycles --- 15 minutes
Read the following verse from Ecclesiastes:
"All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place from which the water flows, there it returns." (Ecclesiastes 1:7)
Ask them to discuss briefly what it means for the water, or for other organic material, to return from where it came. Take a look a the recycling symbol; why was it chosen?
Discuss some of the following points:
What is "garbage?" Is it good for anything?
Discuss what "biodegradable" and "compost" mean. (Biodegradable: human-made material that can break down into small, organic parts with the aid of natural weathering processes and bacteria. Compost [noun]: the rich organic material created when materials such as leaves grasses, manure, and food, are broken down by bacteria; can be used as garden fertilizer; [verb]: to prepare material so that it will become compost)
What parts of our garbage could be "naturally recycled" (composted) and returned directly to the soil (leftover food, clippings, other organic materials)? What parts need to be sorted out and recycled in other ways (aluminum, glass, plastic, paper)?
What happens to garbage that doesn?t decompose and isn't or can't be recycled? (It can remain garbage for millions of years!)
3) Making the compost --- 15 minutes
Cut the tops off the plastic bottles and punch a few holes in the sides to let the contents breathe. Make two sorts of bottles. In one, layer the bottle with the soil, the food, leaves, and more soil. In the second, put non-biodegradable trash, such as candy wrappers, metal, etc.. Stir the contents of each bottle, and set the bottle on a tray to catch the water that drains out. Date the bottles and place them in a warm place. Label which bottle has what type of "garbage" in it. You can have the children draw the recycled symbol and place it on the bottle.
Ask the children what they think will happen in the bottles. Check the bottles periodically over the next weeks and months. After about two months, the contents of the bottle with food should turn into a rich compost that can be used as fertilizer in a garden.
4) Next steps --- ongoing
This composting experiment can be used to start an ongoing composting and recycling program in the synagogue, or to kick-off the planting of a synagogue garden. See the other programs in this section for more details. Most gardening stores and many local nature centers will be glad to help you learn how to compost on a larger scale. Vermiculture (worm keeping) is another option. Worms are clean, don?t smell, easy to contain and highly portable.
|
|
| | |
Materials Needed
|
|
Enough large, clear plastic soda bottles for the entire group, finely chopped bits of leftover food (perhaps from lunches or snacks), and (collected from outside) moist soil and leaves or grass clippings, gloves or small plastic bags.
|
|
| | |
Benchmarks
|
|
Develop an understanding of decomposition and the nutrient cycle.
|
|
| | |
Resources
|
|
For more information see Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof.
For a better understanding of composting reference any book on organic gardening.
|
|
| | |
Preparation Time
|
|
Just the time it takes to collect all of the materials listed above.
|
|
| | |
Activity Time
|
|
| | |
Attached Files
|
|
| | |
Comments
|
|
|
This program added on 2002-09-24.
|
Programs placed on the Jewish Environmental Educator's Program Bank are
solely the property of the program submitter. COEJL has no right or
interest in the posted programs and is making no representations or
warranties concerning same. All inquiries concerning programs should be
forwarded directly to the program submitter.
|
