Skip to content
LessonPrint

The Compost Bin, Month by Month is a free printable Grade 5 science worksheet on using a year of compost records as evidence that decomposers return matter, aligned to NGSS performance expectation 5-LS2-1. It prints 7 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 14 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

Next set

One paper per student

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425

Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

The Compost Bin, Month by Month

5-LS2-1

NameDate

Read the record, then answer the questions.

1.Read the record, then answer the questions.

The Compost Bin, Month by Month

Monthly notes and masses from the school compost bin, over one year. WHAT WENT IN AND WHAT CAME OUT September: 40 kg of leaves, peelings and grass added December: pile warm inside, worms and woodlice present, 26 kg March: dark crumbly material, few recognizable pieces, 17 kg June: dark soil-like compost, 14 kg, spread on the beds Plants grown in that bed were noticeably greener.

  1. 1. How much material was added in September?
  2. 2. What happened to the mass over the year?
  3. 3. What does this record not tell you?
  4. 4. What was in the trash can in December?
2.What would happen in a wood with no decomposers at all?
  • A.The trees would grow faster
  • B.Dead leaves and wood would pile up, and their matter would not return to the soil
  • C.Nothing would change
3.Why is compost good to dig into a vegetable bed?
  • A.It keeps slugs away for ever
  • B.It makes the soil heavier
  • C.It returns matter to the soil that plants can take up
4.Some of a compost heap's mass is lost to the air. In what form?
  • A.As gases given off while the material is broken down
  • B.As light
  • C.As smoke from burning
5.What do worms do in a compost bin?
  • A.Eat dead material and break it into smaller pieces
  • B.Make the plants grow inside the bin
  • C.Keep the bin dry
6.Which of these would rot most slowly in a compost bin?
  • A.A plastic bag
  • B.A banana peel
  • C.Grass cuttings
7.Why does the middle of a compost heap get warm?
  • A.The sun heats the middle most
  • B.The decomposers breaking the material down give off heat
  • C.Compost is made of hot food

LessonPrint · 5-LS2-1 · Set 14 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — The Compost Bin, Month by Month

Set 14. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. 40 kg of leaves, peelings and grass. 2. It fell from 40 kg in September to 14 kg in June. 3. It does not tell you which decomposers did most of the work. 4. A warm pile with worms and woodlice, at 26 kg.
  2. 2.Dead leaves and wood would pile up, and their matter would not return to the soil
  3. 3.It returns matter to the soil that plants can take up
  4. 4.As gases given off while the material is broken down
  5. 5.Eat dead material and break it into smaller pieces
  6. 6.A plastic bag
  7. 7.The decomposers breaking the material down give off heat

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to 5-LS2-1 of the Next Generation Science Standards.