Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

Our zoo has a monthly class for preschoolers, ages 3 years old and 4 years old. Each month is a different topic. March's topic was bugs. The teacher, Joy, taught us all about bugs. It was quite interesting, even from my adult point of view. Bugs have six legs. If a creature that you think is a bug does not have six legs, it is not a bug. For example, a spider, centipede, etc. Joy brought out a Madagascar hissing cockroach for us to touch. I chose not to touch it, but Rilian did! Joy also had a hedgehog in class, who eats meal worms, if you didn't know. Meal worms are a bug. Joy let everyone touch the hedgehog and then we watched it eat meal worms. 

Then we did a craft. The craft for this class was to color the flower and then put "bugs" on it. The "bugs" were Rilian's finger prints. He didn't want to draw antennae on his bugs at first so I did. Then he decided he would draw some really long antennae on a couple of bugs. You can see them on the orange flower petal.

Joy also had crickets in a container in class for the kids to look at with a magnifying glass. When class was over, she gave each student their own magnifying glass to take home so they could look for bugs. Once we were done in the classroom, we went into the zoo and got to look for bugs with our magnifying glass. 

Rilian found a small bug crawling near some bird poop on the rock. I have a feeling he might have been looking at the bug AND the bird poop with his magnifying glass.

We walked around the zoo looking at the animals. Occasionally, Rilian would stop and look with his magnifying glass and see if he could find any bugs. Then we came upon the lady bug statue and he wanted his picture taken on it. How fitting, for the class, to get his picture taken on a bug!

I have to admit, I did look to see if the statue was correct...remember? Bugs have 6 legs and yes, the lady bug statue does have 6 legs!