And More Bugs!

We're continuing our study of insects in science! We did an observation of ants the other day. It was so interesting to watch! We put out 6 types of food on small circles (cut out of coffee filters) around an ant pile on our sidewalk. We put out orange slices, shredded cheese, Ritz cracker, pretzel, honey, and a carrot. We predicted that the ants would go to the honey first.

 

We were all surprised when the ants went straight for the cracker! We watched as they worked together to try and take pieces of food to their home. We watched for about 10 minutes, and then went back inside. When we checked a couple of hours later, the cracker and cheese were completely gone! Soon after the pretzel disappeared, but the honey, oranges, and carrot stayed a while. We also observed that flies loved the oranges!

 

A few weeks ago we got some ladybug larvae from Insect Lore and watched them turn into pink spotted ladybugs! 

 

We did this fun activity after learning about how some insects use camouflage to protect themselves from predators. First I printed out a page with branches and leaves on it and the kids colored it in using browns and greens. Then I printed out some pictures of insects that look like sticks and leaves. The kids colored them using the same colors, cut them out, and glued them on the paper. Then we got a few real sticks and leaves from outside to glue on, just for fun!

 



 

And finally we made some cute butterflies from toilet paper rolls! I love crafts that don't require special materials! First we painted the toilet paper rolls.

 

 

Then I cut out some wings and the kids colored them with markers.

 



We folded back a small edge on each wing to put glue on, then put them on the tp roll.

 

 

Finally we taped pipe cleaners on the head for antenna and glued on googly eyes to complete our cute little butterflies!