Growing the Future by Teaching Children in the Gardens
www.GrannysGardenSchool.org / 20 Miamiview Drive, Loveland, OH 45140 / 513-324-2873
Plotting Worm Length
Grade Two
Lesson Summary
When to use this lesson
Use this lesson to explain and practice line plots.
Objective
Students measure earthworms to find the most common length by creating and interpreting
a line plot.
Materials




Ruler for each team of two students
Worksheet for each student
Pencil for each student
Clipboard for each student
Estimated Duration
30 minutes
Ohio Learning Standards Connections
Mathematics – Measurement and Data
Measure and estimate lengths in standard units.
 2.MD 1. Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as
rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks and measuring tapes.
 2.MD 4. Measure to determine how much longer one object is than another, expressing the
length difference in terms of a standard length unit.
Represent and interpret data.
 2.MD 9. Generate measurement data by measuring lengths of several objects to the
nearest whole unit, or by making repeated measurements of the same object. Show the
measurements by making a line plot where the horizontal scales is marked off in wholenumber units.
How to Create a Line Plot

Today we’ll look for earthworms.

Earthworms that we commonly see are night crawlers. Night crawler earthworms are
typically about 3 inches long, but some grow up to 14 inches. Today we’ll measure the
length of our worms to answer the question “How long are the earthworms in our garden?”.

Night crawlers usually come out at night to feed. An earthworm can eat up to 1/3 of its
body weight each day. Can you?

Night crawlers burrow vertically, sometimes six feet down, though they normally stay closer to
the surface.
Revised 2/16 © 2015 - 2016 Granny's Garden School, Inc. We encourage you to use these lesson plans and change
them to fit your specific needs. We ask only that you credit Granny's Garden School as your source.
Page 1

Night crawlers can live up to 6 years. What could prevent that life expectancy? Being food,
not having enough food, dry conditions

When each worm is measured, the length will be recorded on a line plot. What is a line plot?
A line plot is a graph that shows how often something occurs along a number line. In this
case, the graph will show how often we find worms of certain lengths.

Show the worksheet. What do we need to set up our graph? Come up with a title and the
units as a group. The label for the units relates back to the question we are trying to answer
and the title of the graph. If we use a ruler, what is the unit of measurement we’ll use to
measure length? Write inches as the label for measurement units. Add whole numbers to
the boxes below the number line to complete the units portion of the graph.

Students round their measurement to the nearest whole number. Each time students find a
worm they measure it and make an “X” above the number on the number line that equals
the length of the worm. The X’s count the worms at each length.

Show an example on an extra worksheet. The graph below shows 2 worms at 2 inches long,
1 worm at 3 inches long, and 3 worms at 4 inches long. The boxes on the graph are there to
help students keep their columns of X’s straight.
Length of Worms
x
x
x
1
x
x
x
x
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Inches
Collecting and Measuring Earthworms

Remind students not to disturb the plants and to fill in any holes they make.

Remind students to be respectful of the earthworms that the students examine. The worms
should not be pinched or poked, and only very gently straightened to measure them. The
worms should not be stretched.

Assign students to work in groups of 2 or 3 students.

Leave time to wrap up by sharing information collected by students. What can we interpret
from the line plots?
 What is the length that occurred the most?
 Which length occurred the least?
 What is the difference in length between the shortest and the longest? Help students use
the number line to count up if they cannot find the difference.
 Were there just a couple of lengths that stood out as really long or really short and did
not seem to be part of the overall group?
Revised 2/16 © 2015 - 2016 Granny's Garden School, Inc. We encourage you to use these lesson plans and change
them to fit your specific needs. We ask only that you credit Granny's Garden School as your source.
Page 2

What could change if we repeated the study on another day? The numbers could
change based on births, deaths, weather conditions. The sizes could change based on
growth.
Sources

“Common Earthworm.” National Geographic: Animals. 03 May 2013
<http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/earthworm/>.
Revised 2/16 © 2015 - 2016 Granny's Garden School, Inc. We encourage you to use these lesson plans and change
them to fit your specific needs. We ask only that you credit Granny's Garden School as your source.
Page 3
Growing the Future by Teaching Children in the Gardens
www.GrannysGardenSchool.org / 20 Miamiview Drive, Loveland, OH 45140 / 513-324-2873
Plotting Worm Length – Grade Two
Name: _________________________________________
What length earthworm did we find most often today? To answer this question, put an
x above the number
each time you measure a worm that length.
Title: ______________________________________________________
Label: ________________________
In math, we use line plots to graph and analyze data. Today we used line plots to analyze lengths of
earthworms at this time of year. Ask your student how our groups compared. Email
[email protected] to join us for our next gardening experience!
Revised 2/16 © 2015 - 2016 Granny's Garden School, Inc. We encourage you to use these lesson plans and change them to fit your
specific needs. We ask only that you credit Granny's Garden School as your source.
Page 4