Sunday Science - Beneficial Bugs


Our focus for science this semester is as part of a nature study. We are taking a class at a local nature center. The class runs approximately an hour and a half which seems like a long time for little people but the kids love it. Why because the kids are out doing and being for most of the time.
This week we discussed beneficial bugs. We started inside with a very "class" like approach where we got to meet a huge spider. The facilitator did a brief slide show and explained what makes a bug beneficial and showed some of the bugs we would try to find outside.
We started outside looking at decomposers in wood logs. The children touched the log and examined the changes that had occurred in it. The log was soft and crumbly. The children took turns pulling away pieces of the log

They got to see the holes made by some of the beneficial bugs. The instructor told the children the kind of bug but I was not close enough to hear.
Then they rolled the log over and saw all the bugs hiding underneath. They caught some of the bugs and identified them. The pictures did not turn out well because the bugs were too small but we got to see and identify several different insects crawling out of the log.
But the log was not the only place we saw bugs. We went over to a deer carcass and found carrion bettles. Froggy's only comment was "Pweee"
She liked it much better when we went to the flower garden and saw Monarch caterpillars. The children had nets and a butterfly habitats to release them into.
Someone found this amazing dragonfly. He was the hit of the day. I have never seen a dragonfly with a set of double wings like that.

Comments

  1. An Almost Unschooling MomSeptember 12, 2010 at 4:50 PM

    Pwee indeed! I think I could skip the deer carcus - but there's a Magic School Bus that goes perfectly with investigating the rotten log :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Natalie PlanetSmartySeptember 12, 2010 at 6:26 PM

    Sounds like a terrific class, but I am not so sure about that deer carcass :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. EvaSeptember 12, 2010 at 8:38 PM

    Looks like fun, what a great class :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brimful CuriositiesSeptember 12, 2010 at 10:08 PM

    I'd also prefer examining the butterflies over a deer carcass. The dragonfly is also pretty neat!

    ReplyDelete
  5. PhyllisSeptember 13, 2010 at 8:11 PM

    What a cool time! I love the dragonfly!

    ReplyDelete
  6. TiciaSeptember 30, 2010 at 10:49 PM

    my kids would have said "ewww" too at the deer carcass.

    I'm with Brimful, I'd rather look at the butterflies.

    ReplyDelete

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