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

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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. Where did the missing mass go?
  2. 2. What does this record not tell you?
  3. 3. What happened to the mass over the year?
  4. 4. What claim does this record support?
2.Which of these would rot most slowly in a compost bin?
  • A.A plastic bag
  • B.A banana peel
  • C.Grass cuttings
3.What would happen in a wood with no decomposers at all?
  • A.Nothing would change
  • B.The trees would grow faster
  • C.Dead leaves and wood would pile up, and their matter would not return to the soil
4.Why is compost good to dig into a vegetable bed?
  • A.It keeps slugs away for ever
  • B.It returns matter to the soil that plants can take up
  • C.It makes the soil heavier
5.Some of a compost heap's mass is lost to the air. In what form?
  • A.As light
  • B.As smoke from burning
  • C.As gases given off while the material is broken down
6.What do worms do in a compost bin?
  • A.Eat dead material and break it into smaller pieces
  • B.Keep the bin dry
  • C.Make the plants grow inside the bin
7.Where do the minerals in fallen leaves end up after they rot?
  • A.Nowhere, they are destroyed
  • B.Back in the soil, where roots can take them up
  • C.In the clouds

LessonPrint · 5-LS2-1 · Set 20 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — The Compost Bin, Month by Month

Set 20. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. Into gas and water given off as the decomposers broke the material down. 2. It does not tell you which decomposers did most of the work. 3. It fell from 40 kg in September to 14 kg in June. 4. Matter moves from plants through decomposers back into the soil and the air.
  2. 2.A plastic bag
  3. 3.Dead leaves and wood would pile up, and their matter would not return to the soil
  4. 4.It returns matter to the soil that plants can take up
  5. 5.As gases given off while the material is broken down
  6. 6.Eat dead material and break it into smaller pieces
  7. 7.Back in the soil, where roots can take them up

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