Bugs & Insects

The interest in bugs and insects began with one child and quickly spread to many more. It would be odd if we got through a day at Kidditech without hearing, “can we go look for bugs?”

During the term we started making a bug hotel. There was a lot of interest in fly catching as we fed the flies to the Kidditech frogs. Lou also found lots of worms and snails in the garden one weekend and the children loved watching and exploring them. We learnt how bugs and insects form a special part of our ecosystem and what they do for our world. We wanted the children to find out about bugs and insects bodies, body parts, what they eat, what they get eaten by and how they live. Another aspect we thought was important was that they are all living creatures to be cared for and respected and learned how we can all do this.

The children made a list of the bugs and insects they wanted to find out more about to investigate and what they wanted to find out. It was our plan to help the children discover the answers to their questions and create a wide variety of rich learning experiences based around this project. Some questions were: How can we grow flies to feed the frogs? What do worms eat? How many eyes do spiders have? Where do they live?

The children were involved in so many new experiences and learned so much about bugs and insects. During the project we did weekly studies on bees, snails and slugs, praying mantis and ladybirds and centipedes. We made big spiders, playdough spiders, explored worms, made bread dough worms, bug masks and went on lots of trips in the local community.
“Worms live under the ground” – Nikau. “Worms don’t have eyes, ears, or noses” – Jaden, “Spiders have 8 eyes” – Scarlet.

We have focussed on flies and have learnt about their bodies through arts and crafts with Anne. Together, thanks to Lou, we have been growing wingless fruit flies and we also become experts in catching flies in nets to feed our frogs. We designed and built our own terrariums with Cherill and with Sarah we worked hard on our bug house once again planning and giving it a revamp using pine cones and cardboard tubes. With Nicole we studied composting using all our extra food scraps from kai times and breaking it down using our Bokashi bin.

This project work was an incredible experience for all. We have had a chance to get our hands dirty as we look further into our environment and learn to respect and care for all the creatures hiding in our garden.
Having the children lead this learning experience has been a wild ride where all the teachers have been learning alongside the children, and most importantly we have had a lot of fun on this journey!