He’s “Wagging His Tail” – A Little Girl’s Exploration of Earthworms & How We Can Enrich Children’s (and Our Own) Learning

by Jeff Bloom

A version of this essay was posted as a blog on September 14, 2015.

Many years ago, I was studying how children thought while they worked with earthworms. During this research my research assistant and I provided various objects, including earthworms, on a table and let children explore while prompting them to talk and asking questions. We then tape recorded each child’s talk as they explored the objects or earthworms. 

At one point, one of the 7-year old girls said, he’s “wagging his tail.” She went on to other ideas very quickly, but this stuck out to me. In fact, I’ve thought about this statement for years. It’s a kind of flag or marker for hidden treasures. 

If we think about this for a minute, we have “tail” – “wagging” – “earthworms.” These three words and the concepts and meanings associated with them hold many possibilities for exploration, inquiry, stories, and more. 

• What are tails?
• What do tails do?
• What makes a tail a tail?
• What things have tails?
• What things look like tails, but are not tails?

• Why do tails wag?
• Do wagging tails have a function?
• What does it mean to wag a tail?
• What other things mean the same thing as wagging tails?
• In what contexts or situations, do wagging tails mean same or different things?

• Why do earthworms move the way they do?
• How do they manage to move?
• Can we move like an earthworm? 
• What other things move like earthworms?
• What makes earthworms look like they have tails?
• Do they really have tails?

• Can we create a dance about earthworms?
• Can we write a children’s story about “earthworms”?
• Can you play music that will make you feel like an earthworm?

• Where can we find earthworms?
• Where do earthworms like to live?
• What do they like to eat? 
• Are earthworms important for anything else?
• Do they help other things?
• What would happen if all earthworms disappeared?

These questions point to some of the many directions one can take with children. And, they all arise from a statement like, it’s “wagging his tail.” Wagging is rich in function and meaning. Even though technically earthworms don’t have tails, the notion of tail is one of pattern and relationship. And, it is significant and worth exploring. The same is true of wagging. Wagging is pattern and relationship. From such simple statements, children can jump into a rabbit hole that can take them into all kinds of wonderful explorations of patterns and relationships and the stories they weave. As teachers, we cannot plan out these activities. We cannot predict the outcomes. We cannot create rubrics or measure student learning. But, we can provide children with the resources and opportunities to follow their interests and questions. 

Traditional systems of schooling and even current approaches to teaching systems thinking fail to provide children with such opportunities. Schooling is stuck in trying to control everything. Keep everything boxed in (in rubrics, lesson plans, and curriculums). As a result, children are never able to stretch and explore the limits of their curiosities and imaginations. 

As parents and teachers, we can look for these golden opportunities to stimulate imagination, curiosity, further inquiry, and a whole array of possible art, mathematic, music, dramatic, and other types of projects. If you miss an opportunity, it’s wonderful that you noticed the missed opportunity! It’s like missing an exit on a freeway; just look for the next exit. The are wonderful possibilities off each exit!

© 2025 Jeffrey W Bloom

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