1. 3 rd Grade Green Team COMPOSTING PROJECT By: Green Thumbs Members

2. How composting works… Composting is recycling.

3. What is COMPOST?? Leaves seem to disappear but rain and snow cause them to decay or in other words rot. After they decay they become bits of soil called humus. Nutrients from humus get recycled and become rich food for plants. This process is called COMPOSTING!

4. Plants Need Compost Plants need sunlight, warmth, water, and air to grow. Nature, plants, and trees make compost by recycling their garbage. Many things can be used for composting. We can recycle all kinds of garbage.

5. What goes in the compost bin? Here are the ingredients that are combined in the compost bin….

6. What Goes in a Compost? Orange peels Tea bags Worms Pine needles Coffie grinds Every thing should be natural Water Egg shells Air Green and browns

7. Greens Grass clippings Vegetable trimmings Fruit Scraps (stems, seeds, peels) Flower heads and stems Bruised bananas Fruit pulp

8. Browns Fallen leaves, sticks, pine needles, coffee grinds, hair snippings, dryer lint Nutshells, seaweed, tea bags Dirt clods, mulch, oatmeal, bread crust

9. Decomposers Bugs eat some of the things that you put into the compost and that helps break down the compost. Bugs you might see in the compost are mites, beetles, millipedes, worms, slugs and snails, and flies. The decomposers (bugs) heat up the heap by moving! You might see steam coming from your compost! The heat helps the heap decompose even faster!

10. Mini-Munchers The smallest decomposers in the heap are fungi and bacteria. Bacteria are so tiny that we can’t see them without a microscope. These little decomposers work the hardest of all.

11. Nature`s Treasure All of the decomposers work hard to make the soil better. Crawling with worms makes it better. What used to be trash is now treasure.

12. Watch these videos… Compost Kids http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njbn34JrKn E How Compost is Made http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBkBwVFFE Ww

13. We need your help! Help us compost every Wednesday during snack. Put your vegetable and fruit trash into the compost bin and you will turn trash into treasure!