We're Batty for Bats!

Today we had our annual Bat Day in second grade! Each of the second grade classroom traveled around to each of the second grade teachers to learn all about bats.

Ms. Arnold taught us about Echolocation, which is the method bats use to see at night and find their prey. Bats make ultra high-pitched sounds and use their awesome ears to listen to their sound waves reflect off of objects. That is how they know to avoid large objects such as trees when they are flying and it is also how they find food like mosquitoes and moths. Dolphins also use echolocation to find their way around the ocean!

Ms. Arnold taught us a fun Echolocation game and showed us this fun song by Batney Ears! That was one of our favorite activities of the day :)

Mrs. Atherton explored the weight and wingspans of bats with us! Bats have very lightweight bones so they can fly, so even the largest bat in the world (the Giant Golden-Crowned Flying Fox) only weights about 2 lbs despite having a wingspan of up to 5-6 ft! The smallest bat in the world (Kitti's Hog-Nosed Bat or the Bumblebee Bat) only has a wingspan of 5 inches and weighs 1/14th of an ounce! Both the largest and smallest bats live in Asia. 

Afterwards, we went to Mrs. Caporello's classroom to learn more about bats and complete a bat puzzle, and finally we traveled to Mrs. Leonard's classroom to play a game comparing Mega Bats and Micro Bats. The majority of bats are micro bats and they eat insects and other animals, while mega bats are larger and eat fruit or drink nectar. Mega bats have larger eyes than micro bats, so their vision is slightly better than that of a micro bat. 

A watercolor creation from one of our friends in 2AA! 

Finally, we came back to 2R, where we learned more about the times of day when a bat is most active with Ms. Riley. Bats are nocturnal, so they usually come out at dusk, just after the sun goes down, and catch their food at night. They return to their roosts at dawn, just before the sun rises. Bats have very sensitive skin on their wings and also have sensitive eyes, so they do best in the nighttime when is harder for their predators to find them and they have plenty of prey to feast upon

.  

Ms. Riley showed us how to paint our bats during these different times of day by mixing watercolors to create our sky and using crayon resist to make our bats and scenery pop out! It was so cool to see everyone's different color combinations. 

We had an awesome time working with all of the second grade teachers to explore these awesome mammals. We are Batty for Bats!