News from the Outdoors

This week the detectives continued their investigation of bugs and insects around Woodend. On Monday, we traveled to the other side of the sanctuary to observe the newly built “bee habitat” as well as rolled logs to find hibernating wasps! Both classes this week found bald faced wasps, as well as observed a cicada hawk wasp, both hiding under logs.

On Wednesday, we enjoyed our last naturalist hike with Ms. Alex. She took us to the compost bins for some log rolling to explore bugs that work as decomposers. We could see the decomposition in action in all the compost bins, as well as spied Ms. Alex’s favorite, slugs, under logs! It has been a joy to have her with us this year, and the classes sent her off with a huge thank you card as well as a “We Will Miss You” book.

On Thursday, both classes enjoyed trips to the lookout to hunt for bugs, as well as taking advantage of the wonderful weather to enjoy our snack outside at the picnic tables!

News from the Classroom

This week, the Detectives honed our insect knowledge around pollinators. On Monday and Tuesday, we discussed bees and how they use their proboscis to transfer nectar to their hive. In the dramatic play, we set up our own “beehive” with pom-pom nectar to fill up the honey comb!

At the art tables, we combined shaving cream and yellow liquid water color to play in our pollen creation!

At the carpet, we worked on bug puzzles as well as played a honey comb counting game. The Detectives pretended to be busy bees, carrying honey comb shaped nectar to fill our hive.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we talked about the butterfly life cycle. The Detectives practiced some butterfly yoga, doing separate poses for each stage in the life cycle.

We also created our own butterfly life cycle necklaces, using different sized and shaped dry pasta to represent the different stages. We also added lots of pasta to the lab table to continue the fun!

To end our bug study, we were thrilled to have a visit from Ms. Kay, the bug lady! She brought us all sorts of caterpillars, beetles and insects to hold and observe. The Detectives were astounded by the glow in the dark scorpion, and got to explore Kay’s entire bug collection with magnifying glasses in hand!

Weekly Top Hits

The Insect Song ( Wheels on the Bus)

The bees in the flowers go buzz, buzz, buzz,

buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz,

the bees in flowers go buzz, buzz, buzz,

all through the woods!

The ants in the grass go march march march…

The crickets in the leaves go chirp chirp chirp…

The caterpillar in the field goes creep creep creep…

 

Flutter Flutter Butterfly (Twinkle Twinkle)

Flutter, flutter, butterfly

floating in the bright blue sky,

floating by for all to see,

floating by so merrily

flutter, flutter butterfly,

floating in the bright blue sky!

Books we Read

From Flower to Honey by Robin Nelson

From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman

Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert

 

Spoiler Alert: Next week we will be talking about plants and gardening!