Dragonflies - Art project

While discussing more about dragonflies and their importance in the ecosystem, we all made our own little pretend dragonflies. 

 "A dragonfly's got a long body" Kesler said. Bela "...and strong wings." 
 Luca "I want my dragonfly to be yellow and red." Some children decided to paint their dragonfly, while others chose to have plain, transparent wings. 

 * We used transparency sheet for the wings, googly eyes, clothes pins for the body and small pipe cleaners as antennae. Everyone is looking forward to flying their dragonflies at home. 
 Ryeligh "Dragonflies fly very very fast."

Jason: “Is a dragonfly a crawling creature?”

The fir group explored the following about dragonflies:

Their home:  Usually‎ dragonflies are found near water.

They eat:  They are major predators and they eat

MOSQUITOES.‎

Bela “Wow. Thank you dragonflies. Mosquitoes make my skin itchy.”

Matthew “I need to write that down. I want to tell that to my mommy.”

They also eat other insects like flies, bees, ants, wasps, etc.

Dragonflies are also being preyed upon by birds, lizards, frogs, spiders, fish, etc.

Jason “They fly really fast. That will help them stay away from danger.”

How is a dragonfly born:

A dragonfly goes through three stages:  

‎1. Eggs (Dragonflies remain within a few miles of the place where their eggs were hatched).

2. Larva (“nymphs”) are aquatic

3. Adult (Dragonflies are amongst the fastest flying insects in the world)

Characteristics:

- large eyes

- two pairs of strong transparent wings

- an elongated body

- very short antennae

- 6 legs (but most of them cannot walk well) 

         Causation: Dragonflies are important creatures that help our ecosystem. They keep the mosquito community from spreading and becoming an issue that could lessen people's ability to enjoy the outdoors.

A closer look at crawling creatures

To deepen our knowledge, we took our magnifying glasses and went outdoors on a crawling creatures hunt.

This is what the children discovered on their observation walk:

Jason “A dragonfly. It’s got 2 wings on each side and a very long tail.”

Matthew “Like a helicopter. It’s got a long tail at the back.”

Ryleigh “What do dragonflies eat?”

Bela “They fly, really fast. What else do they do?”

Matthew “Maybe they have a playground they play at.”

Kesler “Maybe they help the community.”

Sparked by the children’s interest, tomorrow we will look closer into the life of a dragonfly.  

Other observations:

Kesler “Look, bees. There are bees at my house too.”

Bela “Bees make honey.”

Jason “Yes, they use flowers and they spit the honey back into that shape.”

Anamaria “Do you know what shape it is?”

Jason “No, I know what it looks like.”

Bela “Let’s look under this log.”

Francine “Wow, so many wood bugs.”

Jason “I like roly poly's. They roll into a tiny ball.”

Anamaria “What do wood bugs do? How do they help the ecosystem?”

Matthew “They eat wood.”

Jason “Look, a worm.”

Anamaria “How do worms move? What do you see?”

Matthew “Worms slither.”

 

On our way back the children looked for crawling creatures in our vegetable garden. Ryleigh spotted some wood bugs. Matthew saw a “beautiful flower” and he thinks that bees are going to come over and use it.

 During this month, we will look closely into different crawling creatures and we will focus on the children’s interests and inquiries.

FIR Group - Crawling Creatures

For group time in July we will be exploring CRAWLING CREATURES in our environment. 

The children in the Fir group (Allye, Andrea, Matthew, Kesler, Francine, Ryleigh, Maddi, Bela, Jason, Luca and AJ) jotted down things they knew about crawling creatures. 

Full of excitement, the children shared their knowledge and commented on each others' ideas. 

During our inquiry, we will be focusing our attention on the following key concepts and lines of inquiry: 

Form (Features of crawling creatures)

Causation (Crawling creatures affect the ecosystem)

Responsibility (Human impact on crawling creatures)

Please visit the FIR GROUP wall postings by the block area (close to the office door) to find out more about our daily activities.