The most important animal in the garden - and the most underappreciated! Our printable worm mask celebrates the earthworm, that humble, wriggling, endlessly fascinating creature that Charles Darwin spent 40 years studying and declared the most important animal in the history of the world. Perfect for garden wildlife school plays, soil science classroom projects, World Book Day, birthday parties, and squirmingly brilliant imaginative play in the flower beds.

The worm is one of those masks that reveals enormous amounts about what children already think they know - Darwin's verdict on its importance always lands like a thunderbolt, and the biology behind it is genuinely extraordinary. Every mask comes with a full colour version AND a black and white line art version for colouring in.

5 Interesting Facts About Worms!

Charles Darwin spent 40 years studying earthworms - he concluded they were the most important animals in the history of the world, calling them nature's ploughs and estimating they brought the equivalent of all of Britain's topsoil to the surface every few centuries.
Worms have five pairs of hearts - or more precisely, five pairs of aortic arches that pump blood around their simple circulatory system, making them considerably better-hearted than most creatures.
They can regenerate - if cut in two, the head section will often survive and regenerate a new tail. The tail section, however, does not grow a new head and will die.
Earthworms can eat their own weight in soil every day - passing it through their body and depositing nutrient-rich casts that dramatically improve soil fertility. A healthy garden lawn can contain up to 500 worms per square metre.
They breathe through their skin - earthworms have no lungs and absorb oxygen directly through their moist skin. This is why they come to the surface during rain (not to avoid drowning as often thought, but to travel overground while their skin stays moist).

Printable Worm Mask

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