Worm Minibeast Adventure with Jess

Hello, adventurers! I'm Jess. It's time for a Minibeast adventure.

# Feelers out - what's about?

# Creeping, sleeping

# Under stones, here and there

# Nesting, resting

# Minibeasts are everywhere

# Minibeasts are everywhere, look and listen, stop and stare

# Minibeasts are everywhere, a Minibeast Adventure

# Feelers out, what's about?

# Minibeasts are everywhere, look and listen, stop and stare

# Mini worlds for us to share

-# A Minibeast Adventure... #

-With Jess!

Welcome to my tree house. This is my wormery.

Can you guess what lives in there? Yes, that's right. Worms.

They eat up all my old fruit and vegetable scraps.

They're going to love this.

I can't see any. They're probably hidden cos they don't like light.

They're nature's tunnellers. Shall we have a dig

and see what we can find?

Earthworms are amazing, aren't they? They don't have arms or legs

so they move along by getting longer and shorter.

Let's have a closer look. Worms don't have any bones.

Their bodies are one big muscle. And one big tongue, too.

They taste the soil with their whole bodies.

Look carefully - can you see the worm's saddle?

It's that bulgey bit. It's where they lay their eggs.

Worms don't have any eyes

but they can feel the light through their skin.

And how do you think they make their tunnels?

They eat their way through the soil and then poo it out behind them!

How's this for a fascinating fact?

If you were a worm, you could have up to ten hearts. Yes, ten!

Worms are amazing.

I just put mine back and guess what -

there's some living right near you.

Shall we go and find them?

Come on.

Whatever the weather, we're off together on a Minibeast Adventure.

-Hi, Violet. Hi, Lucy.

-Hi, Jess!

-Great to see you.

-Today, we're going on a worm adventure.

-Wow! That's cool.

-Have you ever seen a worm before?

-Uh-uh.

-You've never seen a worm before?

-No.

You're going to have a treat today. Get your feelers ready.

Feelers out, what's about?

We're off on a Minibeast adventure. Come on.

Where do you think we might find some worms?

-In the mud.

-In the mud. Have you ever done worm charming before?

I'm going to show you how to do it.

-What makes worms come out of the ground? Do you know?

-No.

When it rains. So what could we put on here that will trick the worms.

-Water!

-Yes! We could put some water.

Shall we use these watering cans and see if any worms come up

because they think it's raining?

-The worm is coming.

-No, there's no worms in this mud.

-Come up, worm, come up.

-Any worms?

-Nope.

OK. Maybe we need to try something else.

What if you dance on the ground? Do you think that would make them?

-Yeah. Come out, worms. Come out, worms.

-Come out, worms.

Come out, worms.

-They are still not coming out.

-Oh.

-I think we should dig.

-OK. Come on, then.

-Well, you have to find a pink one because I like pink.

-Worms are pink, aren't they?

-Yes. Ugh! It's difficult.

Do you know why I think it might be so difficult to find worms today?

-Yes.

-Why?

-Because it's so difficult, you can't see them.

You can't see them because the worms might have gone really, really deep

into the ground because it's so hot.

So how do they really down, down, down, down, down, down?

We'll have to dig quite deep. How do you think they get so deep?

-Because maybe they've got special legs.

-Special legs?

-And they can...

-And they can...slug really hard.

-Like wiggle?

-Yeah.

-Hey, I've found a carrot.

-A carrot?

-That's not a carrot.

-Yes, it is. There's still no worms.

I'm sure we're going to find some digging.

I think we should dance again.

-Argh!

-What? There!

-What? Ah!

-Oh, you've got one! Well! Wow! That's pretty, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-What colour is it?

-Pink.

-Pink. A lovely pink. Wow!

-Oh!

This tray's nice and wet, so it should like it in there.

-Aw, he's so cute. He's so long.

-So long!

-I think it's a daddy one.

-Do you? Why?

-Cos it's so long.

-Oh, look how it stretches.

-And then crawls up.

-Shall we find some more worms?

-Yes.

-Of course we can.

-I'm hungry.

-Are you hungry?

-Do you want to eat some worms?

-No! Disgusting!

-No, we mustn't eat worms. What do you think worms eat?

-I don't know.

-Mud.

-Yeah, worms eat mud.

-We can call that one Piglet.

Do you want to call this one Piglet?

-Shall we call it Piglet, Violet?

-No.

-I like Piglet. It's a good name.

-Shall we call this one Piglet?

-Yeah.

-Look, that one's got one, too.

-Aw.

-Do you think they're going to be friends?

-Yeah.

-Shall we see what they do?

-How does it grow?

-How does it grow?

It has to eat and eat and eat and eat

then it goes just like we do. It gets bigger and bigger.

That is so cool. Argh!

How good are you at eating?

A worm munches through a huge amount of earth every day.

That would be like you eating all this.

In just one day!

So I thought we could make a little wormery today

-so that we can see how worms mix the soil up.

-With these?

Yes, with this and with this. You could make your own one too.

All you need is a clear plastic tab and then fill it with soil and sand.

-Can you help me?

-Yes.

-Go on, then. Put some soil in here.

That's great. Now do you want to put some sand, Violet?

The next layer will be soil. Yeah. Now shall we do a layer of sand?

-Can you see the pattern that it's making?

-Yeah. Black.

-Black and white.

-Yeah.

-Black sand.

So then we'll be able to see when the worms make their tunnels

and mix it up.

-Yeah, and they mix, mix, mix, mix.

-Now, a last layer of soil.

Then I've got something for you to put on the top, Violet.

-What did I say that worms eat?

-Leaves.

-Yes, leaves.

They have stuff they'll all find

with the stuff they'll dig in.

You need to put the worms in.

-Can you get that last one?

-Are they going to mix up?

-No.

It takes a while for them to mix it,

We'll leave them there a few days. By that time,

we'll see lots of different tunnels,

then after that, we put them back in the ground.

-Brilliant. Right, let's put the lid on.

-I'll put the lid.

It's got some holes in so they can breathe.

There. Can you remember where we said worms like to live?

-Dark places.

-Dark places. So I thought we could put this cover on.

-Can I do it?

-Yeah. I think that might be a good idea.

-Oh, I can see an eye. It's a worm.

-It is a worm, yeah.

-So we put that on, cover them up.

-And then pretend it's dark and stop.

That would be brilliant.

I hope Lucy and Violet can see those worms making tunnels

in their wormery. Maybe you could go on a worm adventure too.

There's bound to be a worm living near you.

Maybe you could charm one or carefully dig one up.

You could even make your own wormery.

Feelers out, what's about?

Happy hunting, adventurers!