Last week we had the pleasure of spending our afternoons with some intrepid bug catchers. A large group of curious and enthusiastic 3 to 5 year olds joined us for our Insects in the City camp, exploring insects through literature and art, as well as catching their own bugs and examining them under in their very own bug catchers.
I loved this camp! The students were so inquisitive and got really into looking at bugs. During our excursions into the neighbourhood we listened to them talk like scientists, discussing how they could identify the gender of an insect by their load of visible eggs. It was amazing to watch them learn the names of all the insects — they went from saying, “Hey! Look at that wiggly one” to “Hey! Look at that spittlebug.” Incredible.
The students also created some fantastic works of art. Each had an aquarelle painted background, tissue paper leaves and bugs made out of polymer clay. I was impressed how the students took pains to be accurate. Each spider had 8 legs, each insect had 6 legs. I was also impressed by how steadfastly all the artists stood by their vision of their pieces. Despite the fact that we told Noah that a crab was not an insect, his finished product was a gold crablike masterpiece. It was beautiful.
Our art explorations were interspersed with some of Christianne’s favourite stories about insects. Here’s the complete list:
Hey Little Ant by Phillip and Hannah Hoose
Tadpole’s Promise by Jeanne Willis
I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe
Honey Bee and the Robber by Eric Carle
Field Guide to Insects by Paul Beck
Buzz by Dorling Kindersley
Bubblegum, Books and Bugs by Monica Kulling
On the final day of camp, the students collaborated on a poem. Each supplied some information that they’d learned during the camp, some anecdotes from their own lives, as well as some more whimsical musings. The final product knocked my sox off. Here it is:
I Know All About Bugs
Flies sting you twelve times,
but this is a poem about a ladybug.
Orange lady bugs, they have orange on them
and black spots and they bite.
You have to be careful when you pick them up.
That’s the kind of ladybug I saw on my back deck.
This is their attack thingy.
When you get a ladybug is sprays out yellow.
It’s horrible.
If you eat it,
it would taste like yuck,
like crunchy
and sour.
It would taste like wood.
You’d need to cook them first.
A ladybug was in my backpack and my mom saw it.
When my mom was a ladybug she found a big castle.
My dad is not a ladybug, he stays in my house with me.
But my mom is not a ladybug yet, she’s still a mommy.
And my dad is not a ladybug, he’s still a daddy.
If a ladybug were the size of a car it would squish you,
but if you ran away, it wouldn’t catch you.
If you ran into your house
and locked the door just in time
and your family did it too,
you would be safe if you didn’t open anything.
A ladybug flies.
It goes all the way to a flower
It goes all the way to a compost.
It goes all the way to the top of my house.
Then it goes all the way to the top of Mount Everest.
It sees everything. It sees me.
It sees trees. It sees flies.
It sees cars. It sees a skyscraper.
Then it the sees the whole town.
I don’t have lady bugs on the top of my house.
I go to the park. I see a ladybug.
Perhaps our own feelings of awe about the insect world were most accurately summed up by Lucas who, after a long discussion about insect stingers and secretions said, “Our bums are so boring!”
