Bananas are Bugging Out!

 

May Study: Insects + Plants

We have finally wrapped up our final study of the 2024-2025 school year! The Bananas chose to learn about insects for the month of May and we had SO much fun doing so. We started talking about what we know about insects; what they look like, how they move, and what they eat. From there, we dove into the investigations. 
First we talked about the characteristics, such as the sounds they make, how they work together, and how they move in nature. To illustrate this, the kids got in groups of three and lined up with hands on each others shoulders and moved about the playground. We also measured how far we could jump and talked about why its important for some insects to jump. We spent a lot of time talking about the three body parts that all insects have: a head, an a thorax, and an abdomen. Insects also have six legs and some have wings. If it doesn't have six legs and it doesn't have three body parts, it's not an insect! 
In our next investigation we looked at how insects live. We talked about the words probiscus and mandible and how these are the two ways that insects eat. Insects like butterflies have a probiscus so they can drink the nectar from flowers while insects like termites have mandibles so they can chew on wood. 
In our last investigation, we looked at how insects change. This investigation was made extra special as we were able to watch the caterpillars we ordered from Amazon turn into beautiful butterflies. We talked about the names of each stage of the insect life cycles and watched some really cool videos on YouTube about the ladybug and butterfly life cycles. 
I know insects are usually considered pests, but the kids really loved learning more about them and why they are important to our earth. So before you step on one, maybe try looking at it a little closer with your child and see what they can tell you about it! 
We also spent some time during May learning about plants. We planted seeds in paper towel and placed them in a plastic bag in the window. We then checked on them and talked about the parts of a plant. Plants go through life cycles the same as insects do! We also planted some vegetables in a clear container so we could watch all the ways they grow. Hopefully your child's plant is still alive and thriving! 

James is using our magnetic science tins to sort insects by wings and no wings

Anthony is playing our letter game where I named a letter sound and they had to swat the bug with that letter

Declan is observing our caterpillars as they turned into chrysalises 


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