July Summer Camp - Insects

Ants...

Circle Time - Ladybug Rug - The kiddos picked a spot off our rug to learn facts about ladybugs.  A few things we learned:  ladybugs are omnivores, they can fly 15 mph, they live for 2-3 years, they hibernate, they play dead when threatened...

Circle Ladybugs - 

Super cute and really easy!

Spoon Ladybugs - The kiddos added spots to their ladybug on a leaf.The handle of the spoon is the stick that the leaf is on.  We didn't get the stick part painted.

 Next time I will probably color these with sharpie instead of trying to paint them.  Painting took a couple of coats and you had to sand the spoon first.  I saw this idea:  Here.

 
Ladybug Buggles - These were fun to make.  The kiddos loved the huge eyeballs. 

I found this cute idea on Pinterest:  Here.

Backyard Ladybug Observations - I purchased ladybugs at a nursery.  They had been in the fridge, so the ladybugs were just waking up.  

Homemade Bug Catcher - (I learned how to make these while teaching at The Discovery Science Center in Colorado).  Two clear plastic cups, cut the bottom off one of them and hot glue netting to the top of it.  The kiddos can easily scoop up bugs with the two cups and observe them.  They can also create a little habitat inside for them.

Left:  This kiddo is using the two cups to catch a rolley-polley.
Right: Once the ladybugs woke up, they were all over the place...

 

We also looked for other bugs.  We found rolley-polleys and spiders.

We sprayed a bit of sugar water on some leaves to help the ladybugs to stay so we could observe them.  It worked really well.

Ants....

Circle Time - Ants - Today we studied ants.  We talked about the anatomy of an ant (3 body parts, 6 legs, 2 antennae, jaws) and how they live together in a community, each with a job.

Fingerprint Ants -

 
Egg Carton Ants - 

 

Backyard Ant Finding - We found some ants on the patio.  We crunched up some crackers for them.  We got to watch them carry some bits away.  There were also still some ladybugs hanging around.

 

Snack - Ants on a stick....

Cool Beetle! - Just as we were fixin' to leave, we found this long horned beetle by the back door!  How cool!

Today our insect to study is:  Bees

Circle Time - Bee Talk - We chatted about bees today.  We knew they made honey and that sometimes they sting you.  We learned that bees have a similar body structure to ants.  They have 3 body parts, 6 legs, 2 eyes, 2 antennae, and wings!

Tape Bees - The kiddos added yellow tape and wings to these little bees.

Pollinators - We learned that bees pollinate flowers which helps new flowers to grow.  We also learned that bees collect pollen on their fuzzy bodies while visiting flowers.  When they're ready to fly back to their hive, they "comb" the pollen off their bodies then pack it into the stiff hairs on the back legs (called pollen baskets) and then head for home.  The pollen is used as food for the queen bee and for the baby bees.

We collected some tasty pollen today:  The egg cartons became our hive.  The crushed graham crackers and Cheetos were two different flowers to collect pollen from.  The marshmallows were edible bees, the cotton balls were in-edible bees.Gathering pollen from our flowers...

We also enjoyed some nectar (juice box) from our flowers.  We learned that bees have two stomachs.  One for normal eating and one for holding nectar to bring back to the hive.  Once the bees return to the hive with their nectar, they regurgitate it onto the mouth parts of worker bees who roll the nectar around on their tongues (proboscis) and then put it into honeycombs where they stir it with their tongues and fan it with their wings to evaporate the water from it and it becomes honey!

Tp Tube Bees - The kiddos painted their tubes yesterday.  Today they added black stripes and wings.  Then they flew them around the preschool to "The Flight of the Bumblebee" music. 


Backyard - We practiced our nectar collecting skills with a pipette proboscis.  The kiddos sucked up nectar from our "flowers" then squirted it at the hive "bushes".