Audience participation

No end to volunteers at today's Worm Show! The kids were all excited to guess how many worms were in the bottom half of a coffee cup*, and then queue up by their numerical guesses ranging from five to one hundred twenty. "What do we get if we're right?", one girl asked. All I could offer was The Thrill of Victory, but that was okay by her.

• Tear newspaper to make worm bedding? You bet!

• Crush egg shells by sitting on them? Absolutely!

• Demonstrate the sound effect of Velcro shoes? Squwckkk.

• Sniff vermicompost?** Very brave.

• Open the box, grab a book from Dave the Giant Worm, and then pull Dave out of the bin? Sure. Just say when!

• Stand in front of the group and read aloud silly joke questions about worms beside the alleged worm expert, Dr. Chicken? Nearly all the kids were excited to participate no matter what their reading level. (The Worm Show was for kids ages six and up.) The kids listened respectfully to their peers. It did this old WormMama's heart good!

It was all a ridiculous amount of fun, and that was even before we started watching worms wandering Lego mazes, and touching night crawlers. "Can we check out some worm books, Mom?" I'm betting there will be worm/Lego science fair projects next winter.

*   Two hundred two red wigglers aka Eisenia foetida.
** "It smells like soil." Bingo!


© 2013 Nancy L. Ruder