The making of butterfly feeders

 

The children wondered..."What do butterflies like to eat?"  The I Pads came out for some research and investigation. The children came across how to make a homemade butterfly feeders. Of course we had all the materials available in our classroom. The children went straight to work.

After the feeders were created we measured 10 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar and brought it to a boil. "That's the butterfly juice that they will love to eat." Sienna. We hung the feeders in our upstairs garden. The children wondered and made predictions on when we would see our first butterfly.

Surprise! We have babies!

"Miss! Miss! Look!!! There's babies in the terrarium!" 

Sure enough, we gazed into the terrarium and it was speckled with eensy, weensy, tiny insects.

A praying mantis egg sack had hatched.

We found it was awfully difficult to count how many insects had hatched, since they were hopping and moving all about. 

We observed that there were more than 10, 20 30, or 40.

Maybe there was even more than 100!

We decided to 'Zoomie' in on the baby praying mantis' and learn all that we could.

 

 

 

The children engaged in many interesting conversations. The discussed what they noticed and what they thought. 

They continued to revisit the terrarium.

What changes were occurring as each day passed?

What did the insects need in their habitat? What could they eat? Did they want to crawl on a stick?

Curiosity and wonder led the children to want to know more.

The baby praying mantis' are delicate.

Ms. Lecoq and the children researched information about the praying mantis babies.

Girl praying mantis' have more lines than boy ones.

The children compared how many lines the babies had.

Kids National Geographic has some interesting facts and cool pictures of praying mantis'.

There are a few great kid friendly sites that have many interesting facts about praying mantis'

The children love letting the tiny creatures crawl on their hand and watch them travel up their sleeves.

They enjoyed sharing their discovery with Ms. Sion, who had come to visit.

Ms. Sion knew so much about the praying mantis'!

The children have discovered that praying mantis' love to eat fruit flies...and maybe each other!

As they grow, they are shedding their old skin.

They like to hop.

The babies thought it was Springtime because it was warm inside.

Many more egg sacks are attached to the plants near the dry river rock bed in front of the school.

That's what we know....so far!

Our Upstairs Garden

In June, the kindergarten children were busy tending the garden on our rooftop. Many, many bags were filled with dried twigs, branches, weeds and overgrowth. Once the hard work was done, we took all the seedlings and sprouts that had been growing in the wonderful world of kindergarten and planted them. We talked about where each plant might need to be.

We made sure to keep the sunflowers near the fence. That way they would be nice and  t

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and ready to greet the children with their bright colours

 when the children returned in September.

Herbs were able to be planted in just about any spot! 
These herbs needed room to grow   w  i  d  e.

Everyone became very excited when a leaf bug was discovered. It was very hard to see, since it had camouflaged itself so well! When Mrs. Brent asked what 'camouflage' might mean, Donovan answered, "That's when they try to hide!" Of course, we left it right where it was so the leaf bug could continue to live in it's own habitat...but not before we took a great picture!

Can you spot the leaf bug?

 

Many insects live in our rooftop garden. They all have their purpose. Who needs pest control when you've got a healthy garden filled with beneficial insects?! Click the link to find out more.

10 Most Important Insects in the World 

 

Some plants needed support so their vegetables didn't lay on the ground. They needed to be near a fence so the sun could help them to ripen. If they were laying on the ground, they would rot more easily if they hadn't been 

picked at just the right time. 

We weren't too worried about the bees visiting the rooftop garden. They were busy busy busy! They especially liked the sunflowers. So did we.

 

Some of the plants needed room to grow quite round and large. This plant had soft, fuzzy, huge leaves! We haven't figured out the name of it yet...but we will.

We left plenty of room for this area. It's our Suzuki pumpkin patch. Pumpkin vines are growing all around.

 

 We enjoyed seeing lightly coloured flowers popping up here and there. They added just the right touch of beauty to such a vibrant garden.

 

  

In many areas, the weeds had returned. They had grown just as tall as they were in June when they had been pulled....or rather when we thought they had been pulled!  Weeds are like that. Just like 'The Cat Came Back' that Fred Penner sings...the weeds came back...they just wouldn't go away!

The Cat Came Back 

The children harvested many tomatoes. Why were these ones so small? Well, because this variety is called 'cherry tomatoes'. They are small...and delicious!

A garden of children in a children's garden! 

Cabbage and cherry tomatoes, herbs and sunflowers, pumpkins and squash...a feast awaits!