Kindergarten Bug Hunts

Genus Melanolophia 
with green eyes!

I caved on Monday and made each of the six pre-K and K boys (there are only boys in that class) their own bug collection container. I say "caved" because having bug hunts can be a problem. Little kids love bugs and get overly excited. Also, with my disability, I cannot take them out like in the good old days and must rely on other staff for that. But I could not resist their enthusiasm. They were amazed as they watched me create the containers, yet all I did was heat up a paper clip and poke air holes in the lid of plastic deli containers that I had from an old fossil unit. Then I wrote each their names on their own container with a Sharpie. The school is very rural, at the edge of the woods where there are bear and deer. We reviewed the rules for going outside, I told them to move slowly and gently (that is hard for boys this age!) and we let them out the classroom door. They returned 10 minutes later with the beautiful moth shown above . . . and . . .

Pyractomena larva

. . . a baby firefly! I was thrilled. I have never seen one before. Today we did a mini-lesson on fireflies to celebrate the find. 

I showed them a tick that I took off of Lucy last night and froze for them.

American Dog Tick
(Dermacentor variabilis)

I am so pleased we did a few tick lessons.
One student already found a tick on himself
and knew exactly what to do.

The boys taking turns looking at the tick.

The other creatures they found were: 

Moth cocoon

Two unidentified ground beetles
(Genus Pterostichus)

Winter Firefly (Ellychnia corrusca)

The last firefly is probably the same species as the larva from yesterday and was shown to me after class when three of the boys ran (for real), yelling my name (for real), into my next class in another room—so excited that nobody could stop them. My older math students know these little kids and were softly chuckling and waited very patiently for me to tell them what their bug was and photograph it. The K teacher is probably cursing me under her breath.  😉

We're having a great time. The best time. It's a shame that we will close for summer in four weeks now. I can't wait to see what bugs they will have found for us tomorrow morning.

All bugs are released safely after inspection and photos.

_/\_/\_