Learning about insects

I don't know about where you live, but here in Texas, spring is just around the corner.  In the last 10 days our first daffodil has bloomed, and the trees are covered in leaf buds.  They aren't opening yet, but there is definitely a promise of spring in the garden.

Spring is best enjoyed outdoors, and it's a great time to learn about all the little critters that share our world with us. 

While some children are lucky enough to experience nature in a big way every day - I'm thinking farm or country life, or frequent nature walks - not everyone is. One kind of animal almost every child gets to see up close and personal is insects.  All those amazing things that creep, crawl, and all too often "bug" us!

I can't tell you how many times I've taken children to the zoo, only to have them all oo-ing and ah-ing over a beetle or a roly poly.  Sound familiar?  There's a couple of things that make all those little critters so appealing: they're tiny, and kids seem to love tiny things, they move, and that's pretty cool, and there are so many of them that you can almost always find one to check out!

Sometimes it's best not to touch.  I never could identify this particular caterpillar (if you know what it is, I'd love you to leave a comment!), but I try to have the children leave hairy, spiky caterpillars alone. 

I try to teach my kiddos to be safe, without being scared.  Bees are scary to a lot of children, whether because they've been stung, heard about stings, or because their family members are afraid.  Instead of teaching the children to fear them, I like to talk about how to be safe around them.  I teach the children that bees are attracted to bright colors - like flowers.  If our clothes are brightly colored, a bee may want to investigate us, even land on us.  But as soon as they realize we aren't sugary sweet like a flower, they'll fly off.

It's amazing to see the relief on children's faces when they realize that bees aren't out to get them!  We also talk about how a bee's stinger is part of her body, and that she dies if she stings something.  If we aren't a threat - batting at her or bothering her, then she most likely won't bother us either.

 If you have a garden area, even a small one, you probably get lots of insect visitors that you can observe.  Try giving children a pencil and a notepad and encouraging them to draw what they see. 

 Check out the aphids on our cabbage plants!  (Yes, it really is cabbage.  I let them go to flower, and then we watch the insects come, and we also like to nibble on the tasty cabbage flowers ourselves - although not if they're covered in aphids!)

It's no surprise to find ladybugs crawling on the cabbage, and we often find ladybug pupa too!

 We also learn about insects a lot of other places.  With books, of course, but also on field trips.  We saw "Critter Man" at one of our local libraries over the summer, and he had some SERIOUS insects to show us!

 This looks like a bee, but it isn't.  On a trip to the Botanic Gardens one of the children pointed out the "big bee" by the flowers.  I was able to snap a few shots, and upon closer inspection realized it was a moth.  Cool!

I've blogged before about seeing the butterfly exhibit at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens, but I'll mention it again anyway.  If there is an opportunity for you to walk through a live butterfly exhibit, I hope you will - unless your children are scared of them.  Last year I took 3 different groups of children to the exhibit, and the first 2 groups LOVED it.  There were 2 kiddos in the last group who didn't like bugs getting too close to them, and it didn't matter that they were harmless and beautiful.  I should have prepared those kiddos better for our trip, or let them skip it.  20 years of teaching, and yes, there is definitely still more for me to learn!

 Can you see the butterfly on the left using its proboscis to suck up sweet juice from the fruit?  How cool is that?!

If you don't have a garden area, and you can't get to an exhibit, you might consider raising butterflies.  I've had a lot of luck with painted lady butterflies, which I've ordered from Insect Lore before.  There are other companies too, that's just the one I've used.  The first time I raised butterflies I had them in a cardboard box enclosure with plastic side windows.  Please, please, don't use that!  It wasn't big enough for the butterflies to fly in, so they'd launch from one side, crash into the windows, and unable to hold onto the slick plastic, slip to the floor.  They were able to climb up the corners, between plastic  sheets.  Sad!  After that I made a wire frame that fit inside a large plastic bin, and added a fine mesh cover.

 Our butterflies only stayed in it a few days before we released them, and it was a much better arrangement!

I've bragged about Bella's book club at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas before too.  Check out the fun insect learning activities we enjoyed at one of their story times.  If you are in or near Fort Worth, I highly recommend joining them!

Of course there are times when you need to take the learning inside, and if you are a teacher, there are times you need paper and pencil activities too.  

 If you are interested in insect themed arts and crafts, please check out my Insect board on Pinterest,

there are so many people with so many amazing ideas!

I've put many of my best insect photographs into a fun sentence-picture matching activity.  (It is $3.50 to buy from my TeachersPayTeachers store).

I used a lot of preprimer and primer words, and designed the activity for student success.  I tried it out with a former student, and as you can see from the look on her face, she was ecstatic  to discover she could really read all the sentences.  If you're working on early reading, or you have a junior entomologist on your hands, I hope you'll check it out!

If you'd like to see all my insect themed resources, just click here!

Have an awesome spring!

Growing Vegetable Soup, BRIT's storytime

Have you met this beautiful book?  Lois Ehlert creates wonderful and vibrant illustrations, and in Growing Vegetable Soup her vegetables are almost enough to make you hungry.  This was the featured text at BRIT's storytime this week.  As always, the follow up activities were perfect for young children, engaging and playful, and highly educational.  I firmly believe Bella's book club is the best story time around!

 Activities were laid out on the tables in the library, including a fun pumpkin counting/ matching game that the children were drawn to immediately.

 We also looked at photos of vegetables, and categorized which part of the plant each one was before hearing the story, and singing a song about seeds.

 Ms. Pam cut some ripe tomatoes and cucumbers for the children to see and smell, and we admired how different they look when cut different ways.

Downstairs, in the "tree-house" room, there were vegetables to scoop...

 ... and to sort.

 Art supplies were available for children to create a vegetable plant mural.

 My group spent the most time at the seed scooping center, filling and emptying various containers for so long, that I got our seeds out back at the house, so we could continue the play later.

 There was also sand to scoop and pour, with seeds and letters hidden in the mix, and pumpkin seed planting.

I love Bella's book club and BRIT, and am so glad I get to take my kiddos and learn in such a hands on environment!  If you are in DFW, please check out First Saturdays at BRIT, 8am - 1pm on the first Saturday of the month.

Field Trips, and why I love them

I love field trips with the kiddos, I really do.  They are probably the biggest reason I've continued to teach from home, rather than go back to the public school setting.  I love public schools too, don't get me wrong!  My own children attend or attended public schools, and have learned a lot, and done well.  It's just that the students only got to go on one field trip a year. ONE!

 There is so much they can learn by getting out into the world around us, hands on and experiential learning that can't be mimicked in a classroom, even a really great one.

 One of the trips I took this week was to the FW Botanic Gardens.  I took the oldest few kiddos, and they walked and explored for 2 solid hours.

 We started with the Texas boardwalk, going through trees on the raised boardwalk, and stopping every few minutes at the learning stations that are scattered along it. We admired the leaves in different colors, shapes and sizes.

 We climbed on a fallen log, and counted the rings to find out how old it was when it was cut.  The children could see fat growth rings that represent years of plenty, and thinner rings for drought years.  Even cut and on the ground, it was home to roly pollies, spiders and ladybugs. 

 When I told them we were going to go to the Botanic Gardens, they started talking about how beautiful it is there.  Five year olds, and pleased to go somewhere beautiful?  Oh yes!

 We literally stopped to smell the roses - over and over again.  These young children compared the different scents, while watching for bees and other insects.

 Of course we had to take some sweet pictures to show our families! 

 They found peaceful spots to pause.  I have to admit, they had already been walking and running for over an hour at this point, but it was still lovely!  We also paused by a pond for a long time, watching turtles and koi fish, and they noticed that one turtle was different than the others, a different species.

 One child insisted I check out this "bee" - which turned out to be a clearwing sphinx moth.  It hovered like a hummingbird, but looked like an oversized bee.  Amazing!  Something I had never heard of before, but now we all know what it is.

 Of course, kids are going to be goofy.  They had a fine old time sniffing these fallen trumpet flower blooms, then laughing when they could sniff no more, and the flowers fell.

 I planned to take the rest of the children to the Botanic Gardens too, but due to crazy traffic, we ended up at a local city park instead.  It's easy to see that the Botanic Gardens could be a place of learning, but what could they learn at the playground?

 Cooperation and communication to start with.

 Gross muscle development, all kinds of physical skills.  This child learned how to climb up through these rings and back down again safely - and was so proud.

 Pretend play is important too, and each group of kids I've ever met has used this kind of play space to "sell" something.  This group was buying and selling hot dogs, but the following day the wood mulch pieces were sold as chicken nuggets.  Imagination!

 Don't forget the power of sheer joy!  We spun and climbed, slid and rocked, ran and laughed for hours!

 I have a wonderful backyard play area - so why do we need to go to a park?  Variety!  By playing on different equipment, the children are using different muscles in different ways, and it's just more fun to change things up sometimes.

 They get to interact with children they've never met before, or sometimes catch up with an old friend.  On the way to any field trip we talk about our safety rules - #1 rule is "We stick together."  One of the 3 year olds also told me that we talk nicely to the other kids, and if someone bothers you, you ask them to please stop.  What great social skills!  Don't you know some adults that could learn from that small lesson?

 While there are many, many things I could say about our trips out into the world, many things that we can learn, I'm going to end with this one: confidence.  The world is an engaging and wonderous place, and by learning to handle new places and new situations, children learn that they can, indeed, handle new places and situations. 

That's some heavy stuff, for a city park, a garden, or a museum.  And that's why I love field trips!