Backyard Critter Mini-Camp - Day 5 - Dragonflies

Dragonfly Camp

Catherine and I decided to do a mini-camp with our younger kids while the older girls were in camp.  We continued with the same books that we used last week in our co-op camp.  Have I mentioned that this series is really great?!  The story line is so much fun.  It starts out as if you are the insect/spider and talks about how you grow, what you eat, your predators, etc.  The end is always the same ... if your parent/friend looks like this or this or this (pictures of a variety of people), then you are not a "type of insect", you are a human child.  Check it out!  I think you'll like them.

We started the day in the same fashion with devotion and then a reading of the story, Are You a Dragonfly?

While we were hosting camp, Christopher helped out by playing with our younger non-campers.  It was nice for all of us!

We also read from the book Bugs and Spiders - the two page spread on dragonflies.

Next we covered a variety of facts about dragonflies.  We found this site to be a helpful one.  Some of our activities had the children acting like dragonflies.

We learned that a dragonfly sheds its skin as it grows - at least 4 times.  We layered 4 layers of clothing on the children and had them shed their skin.

 

We also learned that dragonfly eyes contain up to 30,000 individual lenses. Human eyes only one.  They have 360 degree vision.  Isn't that amazing?!  We had the children stand together to see how many of them it would take to get 360 vision.  It took 3 to get it from a circumference perspective, but this still didn't get up and down without moving their heads.

Dragonflies have two sets of wings. They don’t have to beat their wings in unison like other insects do. Their front wings can be going up while their backs ones are going down.  

To illustrate this we had the children lay on their backs and move their arms and legs independently.  Or stand and pat their head (not in a circle) while rubbing their stomach. 

Dragonflies flap their wings at about 30 beats per second compared to a bee’s 300 bps.  We timed the children to see how long it would take them to flap their arms 30 times.

 Dragonflies are excellent and strong fliers, they can loop-the-loop, hover, and fly backwards.  We had the children act this out.

Just two cuties moving through. 

 The largest dragonfly is found in Costa Rica. It has a wingspan of 7 1/2 inches.   The children used a ruler to compare this length with their feet, hand, etc to get an understanding of how large this insect could be.

Dragonflies live most of their life in the water before becoming an adult.  While underwater they eat mosquito nymphs, tiny fish, and pollywogs. When they have matured to airborne insects, they catch mosquitoes and gnats in mid-air before devouring them.

We had the children catch their “prey”/snack.  We used goldfish and this activity was a big hit!  

 

For snack we had them make their own dragonfly.  They used gummy worms for the body, fruit roll-ups to make the wings and gummy life savers for the eyes. 

          For the craft activity, we had the children make a dragonfly from model magic (Daniel) or sculpy (older kids).  We talked about the parts of the body as they formed the clay.  They did a great job making the 3 parts of the body, the large compound eyes, the legs, antennae and more.  

 

The younger two made pretty dragonfly pictures by glueing foam dragonflies onto the paper.

Here are a few more facts for those who are still interested.  LOL 

Is a dragonfly a fly?

No. Flies are insects with two wings. Dragonflies have four wings. However, both flies and dragonflies are insects, meaning that they have six legs and three body parts: a head, a thorax, and an abdomen.

Why are they called dragonflies?

The name comes from their fierce jaws, which they use to catch flies (among other winged insects).


Are dragonflies like other insects?

Dragonflies and damselflies belong to an order of insects all their own, called Odonata. Although the two are similar, damselflies are smaller than dragonflies. In addition, damselflies can fold their wings over their backs when they are at rest. Dragonflies can't fold their wings, so they rest with their wings held straight out.

Are dragonflies beneficial to humans?

You bet they are! In fact, dragonflies are sometimes called "mosquito hawk" because they catch and eat so many mosquitoes. Always on the hunt, dragonflies consume gnats, flies, and mosquitoes--all of which humans consider pests.

Why are dragonflies such good hunters?

Dragonflies' ability to maneuver makes them able to out-fly their prey. But dragonflies also have the advantage of excellent eyesight. If you've ever watched dragonflies, no doubt you have noticed their huge eyes. Each of the two large eyes is made up of thousands of six-sided units. Together, these smaller eyes enable a dragonfly to detect even the slightest movement. To test this, try sneaking up and catching a dragonfly. You usually come up empty-handed.

 That's it - a fun day learning about these fascinating creatures that God has made.

Blessings

Leslie

Friends Visiting

I haven't had much time to blog this week as we have had friends staying with us for the week.  Our sweet friends from VA, that used to live next door, came down for the week.  Our oldest girls were attending a drama camp together, along with another friend.  The rest of us had fun just playing and hanging out together.

Here are Rebecca and Hannah - they have been friends their whole lives. 

The little ones played so nicely together - and it is really funny to see a couple of 2 year olds (and hear them).  "No no" and "mine" were some favorite phrases.  LOL  Aren't they cute?!

We spent time working on projects together (preschool bags and science bags), organizing, talking, looking at books, and playing with the kids.  We also did a couple of days of mini-camp which I'll post more about later.  It was a fun week!  :-)  I'm glad they were willing to come and stay for a nice long visit. 

More later.  My sweet hubby figured out the problem with the photos, so I'll load more as I can.  Our connection is slow though so maybe tomorrow will be better.

Blessings

Leslie

 

God Doesn't Make Mistakes

I'm having some problems with my blog - actually with photobucket which hosts my pictures.  It's frustrating to me and make me wonder if it is time to change sites to one that is a little easier to work with.  I hesitate for several reasons.  I have a lot of time invested in this blog and don't want to lose it all (including all of the encouraging comments).  I guess I just don't want to start from scratch, kwim? 

So, I've got several posts ready to go - except for the photos.  They are loaded into photobucket - but now I can't access them.  Not sure what is going on there.  I can see the picture, but I can't edit or copy the picture.  I get a message saying that it's no longer available from the owner.  What does that mean?  I can't upload them again right now either.  So, while I thought I'd be able to post a lot, I may have to wait awhile. 

If anyone has suggestions - I'm open to hearing them!!!

Here's a neat video/song that I thought some of you might enjoy. 

God Doesn't Make Mistakes

Backyard Critter Camp - Day 4 - Spiders

This was our final day of camp.  I was concerned about the weather (80 percent chance of rain from the previous afternoon through the following day).  We started dry - though a very wet yard - and only had light rains in the morning.  We did most of our work in the garage and under and awning - and then a little in the yard.  It worked well despite my misgivings.  God was gracious to allow us this break in weather.

Our book for today was Are You a Spider?

 We began our day with devotions.  We talked about spider webs and how they are made and used.  Lies are a lot like spider webs in that they can trap us.  We talked about how the best thing is to tell the truth. 

Psalm 34:13

Then watch your tongue!

Keep your lips from telling lies!

 We then read the story and had an information time on some of the varieties of spiders that God has made.  It is truly amazing!  I'll share one interesting story.  You all know that spiders have 8 legs and no antennae.  Insects on the other hand have 6 legs and 2 antennae.  There is one type of spider that mimics insects (ants) in order to avoid predators (birds that won't eat ants) or to hunt for ants themselves.  They put their front legs in front of their body so that they look like antennae.  Isn't that interesting?  (And I'm not a huge spider fan either.)

Then we broke up by age.  The older children learned more about spider anatomy (blue blood) and which ones lived in our area.  The long trail of papers are pictures and facts about spiders that live where we do.

The younger children did a quiz to see how much they knew about spiders.  I picked questions that had been either in the book or that we had talked about.  I asked them to stand up if the statement was true and to sit if it were false. 

When they had answered each question, they took turns applying sticker pictures that related to the answers on a large piece of paper (it was really the bottom of a box covered in white paper).  Each child had a turn and they did a really great job in answering the questions.  For those who are curious, I made the stickers by scanning images from the book and also from the internet.  These were then printed on sticker paper.  My sweet dh helped me to do this. 

Next, they moved to an observation area.  More information to learn about spiders and a picture of a spider to label with sticker words.

There were some live specimens for them to examine - even a black widow (one of only two dangerous spiders in our area).  That one was found just the morning at one of the camper's homes.  (Glad it wasn't mine!  If they are here, I don't want to see them!)

Next it was snack time.  Bet you can guess what we ate - spiders, of course.  We made them using rice cakes as a base.  The children could choose to cover it with peanut butter, cream cheese, jelly or a chocolate spread.  Peanut butter was the hands-down favorite.  Then they added raisin eyes.  Last the legs which could be either carrot sticks or pretzel sticks.

 Christopher chose his own snack (peanut allergies) and Eliana let him know that she wanted some too.  He was happy to share.

The younger children made spider gliders for a craft.  I don't have pictures of the actual making since I needed to help the children.  Here's a picture of two of the finished spiders.

And here is one of them in action.

We ended the day by playing a couple of spider games.  Both the older and younger children did these, but I wasn't able to get pictures of the older kids.

First, they tried to throw some prey onto the spider's web.  They had learned that not all of the strands on the web are sticky.  We used cotton balls as the prey and they threw them at the circles made of tape on the web.

In the second game, one child stood on block of wood to which 8 strings were tied.  This child was the spider.  He/she closed eyes and placed their hands on the strings.  The eight strings were being held by the other children.  One child was selected to "strum" their string to see if the spider could feel it.

The spider then followed the string to capture the prey!

 And that is a wrap!  I had hoped to have people over for a movie watching outside and dessert social.  (Showing movie using a projector)  The weather however was uncooperative.  We had thought that A Bug's Life would be a fun one to watch.  We may try again - though our weather is looking iffy this week as well - you know, summer thunderstorms.

I'm thankful for this time to have a fun learing experience with friends.  I'm thankful for the other creative moms that joined me in teaching as it was truly a cooperative effort.  I highly recommend doing this type of camp!  I'm happy to answer questions on how we did it for anyone that may have any.

Blessings

Leslie

Backyard Critters Camp - Day 3 - Ladybugs

We had another wonderful day!  I love seeing the creative side of other moms and enjoy learning from them!  We don't often get a peek into how another mom teaches or chooses to present information to her children.  I love this opportunity to gain new skills from my friends.  Here is a group shot of our campers. 

This was our book for today - Are you a Ladybug?

We started with story and devotion.  Some of the devotion topic included sharing about the different types of ladybugs that God has created.  (With very cute visuals!)  There are over 5000 different kinds and colors of ladybugs - all created uniquely. 

Romans 10:12 says “Honor one another above yourselves.”  We discussed how it is important to respect and appreciate the differences in others, because God designed each of us for a different purpose. 

 The younger children learned more about the life cycle of the ladybug by acting out the various stages of metamorphosis.  Curled up into little balls for the eggs.  Below they are the pupa breaking free. 

Ladybugs also like to eat aphids (grapes for the kids).

Eliana just joins in and has fun wherever she goes!

Next was an observation area for the younger children and books to look at pictures.  The younger children also decorated a little booklet that included the life cycle of the ladybug.  Each were given a small ladybug.  Daniel loved this and carried his around all day!

The older kids learned more about the history of the ladybug, it's anatomy and information on beetles. 

Snack time - we had ladybugs, of course.  These were made using bagel bites, pepperoni for the shell and olives for the spots.  There were also aphids (grapes) to go along with the ladybugs.

Next, we had games and crafts.  Is this not the cutest game?!  One of the moms in our grout MADE it!  Isn't she clever?!  Ladybug Landing is a bean bag game.  You get 1 point for landing the ladybug on the leaf upside down.  If the ladybug is spot side up, you get the number of points equal to the spots. 

Eliana liked playing with the ladybugs.  She kept trying to put them under her chin.  First one, then added a second.  She always lost them all when adding the third.  There were two sets of the these cute games and my sweet friend gave one set to us!  Thank you Adele!  I know we'll have fun with this! 

There was also a ladybug croquet game which I didn't get a picture of - but it was very cute!

The older kids made ladybug houses.  The were beautiful and I meant to get a photo of all of them before they left of the day, but were doing therapy and I missed the shot.  Very creative and individual.  They did a really nice job!

Here is a close-up of Rebecca's - the only one I could get a picture of after the camp.  It's so bright and inviting.  She is really hoping some ladybugs will choose to live in it. 

My boys making their own ladybug area during free time.  This is the ladybug that Daniel just had a great time playing with during the day.

Last - but not least - another fun game - Aphid Relay!  There were aphids (green water balloons) and eggs (yellow water balloons) and a ladybug in the center.  The goal of the game was to get the aphids from one container to the next without them popping.  The ladybug was trying to deflect of pop the balloons.  There were two teams and the one with the most balloons won that round.  The played this one several times and had a blast doing it!

The on-lookers had a fun time watching and then participating on the next round (if they wanted to). 

Just a cute moment of siblings having fun together.

After camp as over, some of the boys hung around and had water balloon fights.  What a lot of fun they had getting soaked.  Eliana also loved the water and especially likes the bucket we were using at our handwashing station. 

That's most of the day.  It was a beautiful day and fun to learn and play with friends.  We have one more day and I'll hopefully post about that tomorrow!

Blessings

Leslie