Outdoor Entomologists

Whew hew! Today was a super fun day! We did all of our insect lessons outside! We started by searching for insects in their natural habitats and identifying what things insects would need to survive in a habitat - mainly shelter, food and water. We also identified other arthropods in the same habitat as our insects, notably spiders and pillbugs. Here are some cool photos from our discoveries!





We also played an awesome habitat game where we talked about equilibrium between a species and their habitat. Ask your kids about this fun game and about how habitat naturally helps regulate insect populations!

I didn't have an opportunity to post yesterday but we did two neat activities on insect defenses. We played a game about insect defenses where a predator had to discover which of us would make an easy meal and a very engaging camouflage activity. For this last activity, we decorated our own butterfly cutouts to match and blend in with our classroom "habitat." Matthew's dad acted as our predator and tried to find as many butterflies as he could in the habitat. Most of our butterflies were VERY well camouflaged. We were able to see how insects with expert camo would be the bugs to pass on their excellent defenses to their young while ones with poor defenses would be eaten immediately and not be able to pass on their traits to their offspring. Eventually, insects with traits that do not serve them in survival will all die out. Here are some cool pictures of our camouflage butterflies. See if you can find them!



Remember to continue collecting materials for our 3-D insect creations that we will start next week! Also DON'T FORGET FIELD TRIP MONEY!