Decomposers: A Text for Students

  This week, I've been working to update my Paraphrasing and Summarizing unit. It's a unit that I wrote and added to over a period of 10 years, so doing a complete overhaul is a major undertaking! 

   As I work on it, I am looking for specific articles to meet reading level and content requirements. This one, "Decomposers: Delightful or Disgusting?" fits the bill! It's a text that I haven't personally taught with since I left teaching fourth grade, but I remember how fun it was to use with students. It's a great starter for a unit on the food chain or to introduce a bread mold experiment.

   You can find a formatted and printable version of
the article here: Ecosystems Informational Text Set.

Reading level: 3/4, Lexile 620

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Decomposers: Delightful or Disgusting?

Have you ever seen what happens when a banana turns brown and mushy? Then you have seen decomposers at work.

Have you ever looked at a rotting log? Then you have seen decomposers at work.

Have you ever observed an earthworm? Then you have seen a decomposer.

 Types of Decomposers

 There are many different types of decomposers. Mushrooms are a type of fungi. Fungi cannot make their own food. Instead, they absorb nutrients from dead things. They are decomposers. There are thousands of different kinds of fungi in the world.

Sow bugs and earthworms are decomposers also. Both of these creatures eat dead matter. Then, when their body gets rid of waste, the nutrients go back into the soil. Gardeners like earthworms because they make the soil nice and rich for plants to grow.

Some decomposers are too tiny for us to see without a microscope. These include bacteria and other tiny organisms. These decomposers are especially important! If you have every watched a banana rot, or smelled spoiled milk, you have seen evidence of these tiny decomposers. They do most of the work of breaking things down.

Puffballs are a kind of decomposer.

 A Part of the Food Chain

Decomposers are an important part of the food chain. They add nutrients back into the soil. They break down dead things.

 In the forest, you can see decomposers at work by looking at a rotting log. Termites and beetles eat the soft wood. They lay their eggs in the log. When the eggs hatch, the baby insects, or larvae, eat the decaying wood.

 Birds and other insect-eaters come to the rotting logs to feast on the insects. You might see a woodpecker or a wood thrush eating the bugs. Other animals, like foxes, might come to eat the small birds.

This rotting log provides food for many animals.

In the Compost Pile

Many people don’t like decomposers. They think of them as disgusting. 

 But other people know how important decomposers are. Some people even have compost piles. A compost pile is a place to put some kinds of kitchen waste, like banana peels and apple cores. When decomposers break down the waste, good soil is left behind.  This soil can be used in gardens. 

What do you think? Are decomposers delightful, or disgusting?

by Emily Kissner

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