Summer Camp - Bees

Circle Time - We talked about the body parts of a bee and compared them to spiders to see what is different.  We discovered that bees are hairy too!  The kiddos each drew a bee on their white board.  They were so cute, I wish I had had them draw their bee on paper.   Here are a few bees from my older group.  We worked on getting the 3 body parts, 6 legs, 2 wings, 2 large eyes and the hair.  They did great!

Now for some Bee Science - First we learned about how bees collect pollen.  They roll around on the flowers and it gets all stuck in their "fur".  Then they carefully comb their "fur" with their legs and gather all the pollen on their back legs and pack it into stiff hairs call pollen baskets.  That's how they take it back to the hive.

We decided to give this a try.  We got flowers (cupcake wrappers) with lots of pollen in them (crushed graham crackers) and we got a big fat bee (marshmallow) and rolled our bee around in the pollen (after licking it, because sadly, our marshmallow bees don't have any hair) and then we ate them!  Yummers!

With my older kiddos we tried a second pollen experiment.  We used Cheetos! They already stick so well to our fingers, we figured that was similar to bees and pollen too!  It worked really well, we wiped our Cheeto fingers on a cotton ball (bee).

For our next experiment we learned about bee's tongues.  They aren't like ours.  They are more like a straw and they are called a proboscis.  So we tried out having a proboscis (straw) for a  mouth...

Once we had that down, we tried using a proboscis to get some nectar...

We also talked about how bees make honey.  They collect the nectar from the flowers and swallow it to a honey stomach.  When they return to the hive they spit up the nectar onto the mouth parts of a worker bee.  The bee then rolls the nectar around on its proboscis to evaporate some of the water.  Next he places it in a cell of the comb and stirs it with his proboscis and fans it.  Once all the extra water has evaporated, they cap the cell off with wax.  Taadaa!  Honey!  For snack I made homemade biscuits to smear honey on.  (See recipe in previous post.)

Backyard bug hunt - The kiddos enjoyed hunting for bugs again today.  The weather was warmer, so we found some!  The kiddos also created habitats for their captured bugs (we did release them at the end of camp today.)

Here is a little daddy long leg...

 Here is an ant ...

 Here is a rolly-polly...

 
Yarn Webs -  A couple of the kiddos enjoyed making yarn webs again.  They tied up the swing set pretty well...

Yummy, easy biscuits

This is a family favorite and they mix up really quick!  (I do it all in my KitchenAid mixer and then knead by hand.)

Stir together:

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder

Cut in:
1/3 cup cold butter

Stir in:
1 cup cold milk

Turn out onto a well floured surface and knead about 15 times.  Roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness and cut out biscuits with glass or cookie cutter.

Bake at 450 degrees for 8 to 12 minutes.

For flakier biscuits, make sure oven is fully preheated and keep biscuit dough cold while waiting.

Enjoy!

Summer Camp - Spiders

Today in camp we learned about spiders...

Circle Time - we talked about the parts of a spider and how they are different from insects.  We also talked about how they create their webs and about their spinnerets (organ on the backside of a spider that created their silk).

 

I had the kiddos draw an anatomically correct spider on their white boards.

Plate Webs - Using a paper plate and yarn, the kiddos wove their own webs.  Once they got their webs created, we used the classroom plastic insects (and then later a cotton ball to take home) to wrap up with web (yarn) to get stuck in our web.

 

They turned out really cute and were fun to create!

Snack - For snack today we created webs from cooked spaghetti noodles and spiders from black olives.  A little goofy, but fun.  The kiddos loved eating the pasta.

Sticky Spider Web - I created, for the kiddos, a sticky web (masking tape) to get insects (paper balls) stuck in.  They had a blast throwing the paper into our web. 

Sticky Web Science -  We tried a science experiment with webs today.  Using double sided sticky tape we created a web on our papers.

We talked about how spiders spin sticky strands and dry strands into their webs and they remember which is which so they don't get caught in their own web.

They also secrete a smidge of oil on their "feet" that makes the going easier as well.  So we tried that out.  We dipped our fingers in oil and .... sure enough!  It worked!  Our fingers did not stick to our web!

Backyard Spider Hunt - We found plenty of spiders in the yard.  But we didn't want to disturb any of their webs.  Can you see the spider hiding in his web below?

 So we just observed them and noticed their different kinds of webs.

Yarn Web -  I brought yarn out into the backyard with the idea of creating large yarn webs.  But the kiddos were happy just to run around and play.  This little guy had a blast simply cutting yarn pieces.

Summer Camp - Ladybugs

This week for summer camp we are learning about various insects in our backyard.  Today was ladybugs...

Here are a few of the things we did:


Snack -   bagel, strawberry cream cheese, crasin spots and Chinese crunch noodles for legs and antanae.  Tasty and fun.  I prefer the mini bagels, but I didn't find them the day I was shopping.

Ladybug rocks -  I washed up some river rocks (landscaping) and let the kiddos paint them.  I thought the googly eyes were a nice touch!

In circle time we talked about all the things the kiddos already knew about ladybugs.  I love the entry by one of my girls of "cute", ha!

Counting Spots -  This is a tasty activity.  First the kiddos created ladybugs using paper punches.  Then they added edible spots.  We used chocolate chips and M&Ms, but we could have done craisins or raisins.

When I've taught this segment in previous years, I have purchased live ladybugs from a nursery that we study and watch and then set free.  Well, time was running short on my errand day and I didn't get them.  So instead we hunted in the backyard for ladybugs.  Sadly we didn't find any, but we found some other bugs to catch.

 

I purchased the hand lenses for $ 0.97 a piece in the office supply section of Wal-Mart.  The kiddos LOVED working with the lenses.

We looked everywhere hoping to find some ladybugs.

Simple Bug Catchers - Buy clear plastic cups and netting ($ 0.97/yard at Wal-Mart).  You need 2 cups per bug catcher.  Take one of the cups and cut off the bottom, about half way up.  Then hot glue a circle of the netting over the opening at the top of the cup.  Then simply nest the two cups inside each other.  The kiddos simply scoop up the bugs with the two cups.