After reading a real word book about bugs, we learned all about the differences between different kinds of bugs. We learned that while spiders are bugs, they are not actually insects--they are arachnids because they have eight legs whereas an insect only has 6. After, we decided to make some spiders to crawl across our kindergarten hallway!
We learned that most spiders have eight eyes, but some have less and some even have more!
One of the questions that came out of our reading was whether or not all arachnids were spiders or if only some were, like bugs and insects. We did some research and discovered that the Arachnid family not only includes spiders, but also includes scorpions, ticks, and mites (yikes!)
On Wednesday, we were visited once again by Wildlife Encounters who came to show us animals that help plants grow by spreading their seeds and protecting them from pests!
The first animal Jean showed us was a Millipede, which is an Arthropod. It lives in leaves, helping them decompose and add nutrients back into the soil!
The next animal we saw was a Green McCaw named Noah. We learned that birds poop every 15-20 min to ensure they are never too heavy to fly, which means the seeds they eat are still able to grow even after they get digested! Noah is a Herbivore and eats fruit seeds berries, and he can break open a walnut with his beak. His feathers are the colors of the rain forests so he can camouflage himself when he is out in his natural habitat, and the red helps them blend in with the rest of their flock.
Afterwards, we met a Fennec Fox named Radar, which helps plants by eating small insects and rodents that with otherwise be eating the plants. Native to Africa, he uses his large ears to find his prey and uses his long, furry tail to keep him warm on cold desert nights.
We then met another animal that eats plant predators, but this time it was an amphibian! Sugar Cane Toads are native to South America, and like the Fennec Fox, the Sugar Cane Toad protects the sugar cane by eating the insects trying to feast on the plant!
We then saw an animal that MANY of us have seen around our own community, which was a Skunk! While skunks like Fauna also help plants by eating pests that try to eat them, she also helps plants by digging in the ground and aerating the soil, making it healthier for plants to grow in. We also learned that skunks give you a few warning signs before they will spray you:
1. Thump the ground with their hind legs
2. Stick Up Their Tail
3. Turn Around
Even then, it will take them a few more seconds to muster up their spray, so RUN!
Don't worry, Fauna was de-stinked before she came for her visit!
Lastly, we saw a Red-Tailed Boa Constrictor, which also helps with pest control around plants. These snakes live in trees around South America
Afterwards, we all had the chance to touch the snake and ask Jean any other questions we had. We are so grateful to her and all the wonderful folks over at Wildlife Encounters for bringing these animals to us!
On Monday we had a visit with Derek from Wildlife Encounters! He came to talk to all of second grade about animals who help shape the earth and make it such a wonderful place to live.
The first animal he brought out was Sid, who is a Moluccan Cockatoo with a LOT to say! Cockatoos and other birds help to shape the earth by planting the seeds they eat. After they eat, cockatoos fly about avoiding their predators, and they drop seeds along the way. You know what they say--what goes in must come out!
Derek also taught us a rhyme to help us learn about which animals are predators and which are prey:
Eyes on the side, I like to hide
Eyes in front, I like to hunt
Next we met an animal who definitely likes to hunt! Derek brought out a Small American Alligator. While he isn't very big yet, this alligator could grow to be 19 ft long someday and already has about 700-900 lbs of pressure in his jaw alone! While they may seem terrifying to us, they actually do quite a bit to help our environment. They feed on invasive species, which can cause a lot of damage to wetlands by eating the vegetation, and they also tunnel deep depressions that provide reservoirs during droughts. These "gator holes" can be a source of lifesaving water for fish, birds, turtles and other creatures.
did you know that Alligators and Crocodiles have very similar DNA to birds?
The next animal Derek shared with us was a Coatimundi, which is native to South America. The Coatimundi is an omnivore (eats both plants and animals) and it is diurnal (awake in the daylight). This animals helps the environment because it too spreads seeds like the cockatoo, and it also digs up the dirt looking for bugs and insects which makes it easier for the seeds to grow (fun fact: 1/3 of living creatures on earth live in the 6-10 inches of soil that cover it!)
The next animal Derek shared with us was a Bennett's Wallaby named Savanna. Wallabies are a type of kangaroo that live in the grasslands of Australia. They are grazers, which means they have very sharp teeth for eating grass so they only eat the blades without disturbing the roots, allowing the grass to grow back. They too spread seeds like the cockatoo and coatimundi and they actually plant their seeds in the ground by jumping on it and pushing it into the soil! All types of kangaroos live in groups called "mobs" which means lots and lots of planting happens in one space :)
After Savanna hopped back into her pouch, Derek had an audience volunteer help him show us some Masdagascar Giant Hissing Cockroaches. While you may not want to find these in your house, they are a great help to the plants and soil outside. They eat decaying plants and animals, break them down, and leave the soil rich with nutrients.
The final animal we were introduced to was a Chinchilla named Sir Poops A Lot!! Native to the Andes Mountain Range, these animals are their own farmers! They have the ability to grow their own food! Living in a volcanic habitat, their food source is often wiped out by lava flow. To rebuild their home, chinchillas hop down the mountains, eat plants, hop back up the mountain, poop (up to 300 times a day!) and use their large back feet to "plant" the discarded seeds in the piles. The roots of the plants that grow are strong enough to break up volcanic rock to turn it into soil, so these animals play a big part in helping areas hit by volcanoes come back to life. Pretty impressive for little balls of fluff!
After the show, Derek let us pet Sir Poops A Lot and the cockroaches, and all of the giraffes took turns petting them both! Thank you to Wildlife Encounters for another wonderful animal experience, we can't wait to see you again in the spring!
This week, we did an experiment to see what makes an insect a good pollinator. We knew that certain bugs made good pollinators, but why? So, we set up an experiment using one main "flower" which was a bowl with baking soda, and three smaller "flowers" to pollinate, which were smaller cups. We labeled our cups and tested three different materials to simulate our pollinators: tape, base ten rods, and pipe cleaners.
Potential Pollinator #1: Slugs
We often find slugs around our gardens, and to test to see if slugs would be good pollinators, we used pieces of tape to simulate their sticky skin. We had 1 minute to stick the tape in the "pollen" of our main flower and try to transfer it to our smaller flowers.
We found that while lots of pollen stuck to our pollinators in the first flower, it was hard to get the pollen to transfer to the second flower because it was too sticky and it wouldn't come off!
Potential Pollinator #2: Ladybugs and Beetles
We also find lots of ladybugs and beetles in our gardens, so would they make good pollinators? We used base ten rods to simulate their hard shells and used them to try to pollinate our second smaller flower with the pollen from our main flower.
Unlike the tape, the base ten rods were not sticky, so while it was easy to get the pollen off the base ten rods, there wasn't much that stuck to them in the first place.
Potential Pollinator #3: Bees and Butterflies
Lastly, we used pipe cleaners to simulate the fuzz on bees and butterflies to pollinate our flowers.
We noticed the pipe cleaners were able to pick up quite a pit of pollen in their fuzz, and it was much easier to transfer the pollen because it wasn't sticky like the tape, so the pollen came off the pipe cleaner much more easily.
Flowers attract insects such as bees and butterflies with their bright colors and nectar because they are the best pollinators, so not only do the bees and butterflies get a meal from the flowers, but they are helping the flowers as well!
