Who's in the House - Science Play

A habitat is a special place where a plant or animal lives. Just like you have a home or place to live, so do animals and plants. When we talk about an animal’s or a plant's home it is more like a neighborhood than a "house." An animal needs five things to survive in its habitat: food, water, shelter, air and a place to raise its young.

Animals require different amounts of space. Habitats can be big like a forest or they can be much smaller like a burrow. Some animals defend a huge territory or roam over a large area. Some other animals need only a small amount of space and can put up with neighbors that live close.

Just like you have to go to the store to get food, an animal leaves its "shelter" to get the things they need to live. If the population's needs aren't met, it will move to a better habitat.

Different animals need different habitats. A fish, for example, needs clean water in which to live. A grasshopper, however, needs a big space where it can hop and leaves that it can eat.
  

Here are a few habitats we observed:

Doodle Bugs or Ant Lion pits

Several different species of ants

Carpenter bees bore through soft woods to lay eggs and protect their larvae as they develop. Female carpenter bees will chew a tunnel into a piece of wood to build a nest gallery. The bits of wood she chews and deposits outside the nest are called "frass". The tunnel openings usually look about one or two inches deep, but they can be up to 10 feet long! These tunnels usually have several rooms where the bees hold their eggs and food. 

Wasp Nest

 Spider web

 Wood boring insects in a dead tree

We also saw: birds nests, squirrels nests, rolly-polies and slugs under rocks, spider egg sacks, lizards on trees

Insect Rearing - Science Play

We collected several caterpillars while on a nature walk the other day. Of course we had to bring them home and see what they were going to "grow up to be"!

We constructed them a large double-cup home and made sure to poke several small holes on the top. The cups were taped together so we had no escapees! We also added several stalks of the plant they were found on, all creatures need to eat!

After 2 days, three of our guests had gone into Chrysalis. 

I released the others back outside and then we waited .... 

and waited ....

After 6 days... we have our first butterfly!

A chrysalis is the pupal stage of butterflies. The term is derived from the metallic gold-coloration found in the pupae of many butterflies, referred to by the Greek term χρυσός (chrysós) for gold.
When the caterpillar is fully grown, it makes a button of silk which it uses to fasten its body to a leaf or a twig. Then the caterpillar's skin comes off for the final time. Under this old skin is a hard skin called a chrysalis.

On emerging the butterfly uses a liquid which softens the shell of the chrysalis. Additionally, it uses two sharp claws located on the thick joints at the base of the forewings to help make its way out. Having emerged from the chrysalis, the butterfly will usually sit on the empty shell in order to expand and harden its wings. However, if the chrysalis was near the ground (such as if it fell off from its silk pad), the butterfly would find another vertical surface to rest upon and harden its wings (such as a wall or fence).
Moth pupae are usually dark in color and either formed in underground cells, loose in the soil, or their pupa is contained in a protective silk case called a cocoon.
It is important to differentiate between pupa, chrysalis and cocoon. The pupa is the stage between the larva and adult stages. The chrysalis is a butterfly pupa. A cocoon is a silk case that moths, and sometimes other insects, spin around the pupa.

             

Banana Butterfly - Simple Saturday

A new species of butterfly has been discovered by Little Mister.

Habitat: Coastal Mississippi

Coloration: Yellow and brown

Lifespan: About 5 minutes

Happy Saturday.

Make someone smile today!

Lightening Bugs from Band-Aids

I have so many fond memories of chasing lightening bugs when I was a child. My Granny would give us some canning jars and we would run around the yard, just at dusk, to collect as many as we could. Then we would sit on the front porch and bask in the warm glow illuminating from our jars until Momma's from all around the neighborhood starting calling their children home from their open back doors! The sky would then become an amazing display of fireworks as all the jars were opened and those jewels-of-the-night set free!

Sadly, we don't see many lightening bugs at our house. If we go out at dusk, we are eaten up by mosquitoes! So we made some lightening bugs of our own to enjoy in the comfort of our dining room which is, after all, mosquito free!

Materials- Black construction paper, glue, glitter, colored band-aids, google eyes

Procedure-
1. Make moon and star shapes with the glue on the black construction paper.
2. Sprinkle glitter on the glue.
3. Stick band-aids criss-crossed for wings and then one straight across them for the body.
4. Glue on eyes and make glitter antenna.

Counting Dragonfly Game

It's National Insect Week and Little Mister and I have truly gone bug-E! Since he seems to still have some counting issues to overcome (counting backwards), I thought we could count-on-bugs for help! Pun intended!

Objective- Understands concept of 1, 2, and 3 (MS Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers: mathematical Development 2.1.6)

Materials- Large popsicle stick, 4 clothes pins, acrylic paints, brushes, google eyes, glue, sequins

Procedure-
1. Paint popsicle stick.
2. Paint the clothes pins. we used different colors for each.
3. Allow to dry.
4. Glue eyes onto stick.
5. Glue sequins onto clothes pins.

Attach clothes pins to the stick to make the 4 wings of the dragonfly!
Now the game can begin. You can do so many different variations:
*Ask the child to count the wings as they put them on or take the off.
*Have them attach a specific number of wings.
*Have them add the wing with 2 sequins on it.
*You can also review colors if you painted them all different.
***You get the idea***

Painting with Insects

OK... Guess what Little Mister found in the Den this morning? A long horn beetle! How convenient that in the middle of National Insect Week a really cool beetle should find its way into our house! After we looked it over and discussed it's characteristics, we decided to have some fun! Entomology and math all rolled into one!

Materials- Watered down paints (acrylics or tempra work best), white card stock, plastic insects, twisers   

Procedure-
1. Using the twisers, gently pick up the insect from above and drip their legs in some paint (careful not to let the body get in the paint).
2. Place the insect in the middle of the paper and let them do their thing.
3. Repeat with several colors!
4. Gently wash the insect with clean water and release outside.

After the beetle made a really neat painting, I gave Little Mister a toy ant and let him make his own masterpiece. We counted legs (6), body segments (3), and antenna (2). You get the idea. It was a great entomology and math lesson!
***No insect was hurt in the making of this painting!*** LOL

Size Sort Caterpillar

As you may have noticed, this week has had a theme! After all, it is National Insect Week! My passion for bugs can be unleashed, all be it temporarily, without causing to much uproar! 

Objective- Understand concept of big or little. (MS Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers: Mathematical Development 2.3.2)

Materials- Card stock, glue stick, google eyes, markers, sticker letters, colored construction paper, scissors

Procedure-
1. Cut different size circles from the colored construction paper.
2. Lay them in front of the child and let them sort the size from big to small giving help if needed. Mix them up and say sort from small to big. Repeat this several times.
3. Apply glue to one side of the biggest circle and attach it to the paper.
4. Repeat with the next size circle until they are all glued to the paper.
5. Add a google eye to the caterpillars head.
6. Draw legs on the caterpillar with the markers.
7. Add stickers to spell the words Small and Big on the paper!

Dragonfly Nymph and Spoons

At the creek again today! Wouldn't ya know it ... this whole big creek and Little Mister finds a dragonfly nymph's moulted skin! Well, being an entomologist, I seized this teachable moment with great joy! We talked about a dragonflies life-cycle in simple terms. When we got home, we looked up some pictures of dragonflies and discussed them a little more. After which, we just had to paint some! 

Materials- Plastic spoons and knives, popsicle sticks, acrylic paints, brushes, glue, google eyes, jewels

Procedure-
1. Hot glue the knives in a criss-cross pattern to the spoon. (adults only!)
2. Paint your dragonfly.
3. Glue on eyes.
4. Add jewels to the wings.
5. Glue a small twisty-tie to the back of the head if you want to hang it (optional).

spoon with knives attached

painting another one

adding jewels

Bug Hunting

I had almost completed my PhD in entomology before I left the program (cough, cough)! So, it's safe to say that I have a soft spot for bugs! I hope to foster that interest in my son, who is inquisitive on his own! He have had many encounters with insects, some spontaneous while others have been orchestrated. Either way, he has been exposed to one of his mommy's keen interests!

Objective- Exploration and experimentation (MS Early Learning Guidelines for Infants and Toddlers: Scientific Development- Feels and examines objects with hands 3.3.1)

Materials- Small insect sweep net

Procedure-
1. Go outside and gently sweep the insect net close to the ground.
2. With the net folded over on itself, look inside to see what you have collected.
3. Try comparing insects you found in a tall grassy area to one's collected under trees.

We collected near water, under trees, in grassy areas and in bald ground spots. We then compared how some were the same and different.
We also collected a grown male cat! Yes, they go in the net easy... It's getting them out that is the tricky part!