Kindergarten News
I can say my letter Zz and the sound it
makes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLu-bccANRg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBk
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Bugs!
http://kids.sandiegozoo.org/anim
als/insects/butterfly#animals
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F10LR
Read alouds
• The Grouchy Lady Bug
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFNZvJ
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• The Very Hungry Catepillar
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4HI7q3
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• The Itsy Bitsy Spider Poem
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwwUb
Read alouds
• What is an Insect
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_sNkt
KVtQs
• Beautiful Butterfly
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooBJbU
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• Song of Butterfly Life Cycle
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YVqHn
Grass hopper
•
My Home: I am found in gardens, fields, on crops
and forests in almost all climates worldwide.
•
What I eat: I am an herbivore, which means I
eat only plants.
•
What I look like: I come in many sizes and
up to 5 inches in length. I can walk, hop
great distances and even fly. I have five
eyes and no ears, but can still hear with a
special organ on my abdomen called a
tympanal organ. My large back legs are used
for hopping and making music. My smaller front
legs are used for eating and walking.
•
How I am born: I go through three stages of development: egg,
nymph and adult. My egg is laid in the fall and will hatch during the
spring. I hatch into a nymph, which looks like an adult grasshopper,
but without wings. I shed my skin many times to grow. When I become an adult I have developed wings. I will live
about one year.
•
•
Fun Facts
They make their sound (music) by rubbing their
Butterfly
• Butterflies (Order: Lepidoptera) are brightly colored flying insects with two pairs of large wings that vary in color and pattern from species to species. Butterfly wings are covered with overlapping rows of tiny scales, a characteristic butterflies share with their fellow lepidopterans, the moths.
• Diet
• A caterpillar’s first meal is its own eggshell. It then spends most of its time eating the leaves of the plant on which it hatched. An adult butterfly uncoils its long, straw-like proboscis to sip nectar from flowers, juice from rotting fruit and water from puddles.
• Population
• Exact numbers are not known since there are about 17,500 species of butterflies spread throughout almost the entire world.
• Range
• Butterflies are found worldwide except on the continent of Antarctica. Many species migrate to avoid adverse conditions
.
Most migrate relatively short distances, but monarchs and several other species migrate thousands of miles.• Behavior
• Life cycle: From egg to adult, butterflies undergo a series of physical transformations known as metamorphosis. After mating, the female butterfly lays her eggs on a caterpillar food or “host” plant. The eggs can hatch within a few days, or within months or even years, depending on whether or not conditions are right.
• After hatching, a caterpillar begins to eat the host plant. The caterpillar sheds its skin several times during this stage. It then seeks a sheltered spot, suspends itself by silken threads and sheds one last time to reveal skin that will harden to form the chrysalis or pupa. Days, months or even years later, depending on the species, a fully developed winged adult emerges from the chrysalis and the cycle begins anew.
Ants
Worms
• An earthworm can grow only so long. A well-fed adult will depend on what kind of worm it is, how many segments it has, how old it is and how well fed it is. An Lumbricus terrestris will be from 90-300 millimeters long.
• A worm has no arms, legs or eyes.
• There are approximately 2,700 different kinds of earthworms.
• Worms live where there is food, moisture, oxygen and a favorable temperature. If they don’t have these things, they go somewhere else.
• In one acre of land, there can be more than a million earthworms.
• The largest earthworm ever found was in South Africa and measured 22 feet from its nose to the tip of its tail.
• Worms tunnel deeply in the soil and bring subsoil closer to the surface mixing it with the topsoil. Slime, a secretion of earthworms, contains nitrogen. Nitrogen is an important nutrient for plants. The sticky slime helps to hold clusters of soil particles together in formations called aggregates.
• Charles Darwin spent 39 years studying earthworms more than 100 years ago. • Worms are cold-blooded animals.
• Earthworms have the ability to replace or replicate lost segments. This ability varies greatly depending on the species of worm you have, the amount of damage to the worm and where it is cut. It may be easy for a worm to replace a lost tail, but may be very difficult or impossible to replace a lost head if things are not just right.
• Baby worms are not born. They hatch from cocoons smaller than a grain of rice.
• The Australian Gippsland Earthworm grows to 12 feet long and can weigh 1-1/2 pounds.
• Even though worms don’t have eyes, they can sense light, especially at their anterior (front end). They move away from light and will become paralyzed if exposed to light for too long (approximately one hour).
• If a worm’s skin dries out, it will die.
• Worms are hermaphrodites. Each worm has both male and female organs. Worms mate by joining their clitella (swollen area near the head of a mature worm) and exchanging sperm. Then each worm forms an egg capsule in its clitellum.
Bees
• Bees help plants reproduce. They carry pollen from one flower to another, this helps the flowers reproduce. Without the help of bees, many plants would not be around. Since many animals need plants to survive, bees indirectly help other animals survive as well. They help over 250 different types of flowers.
• Bees use the flower pollen to feed their young or larvae.
• The pollen that bees take from the flowers is used to feed baby bees. The pollen is very rich in protein.
• Bees vary in size.
• Some bees are very tiny and some are bigger than flies. Bees range in size from 2 millimeters to 4 centimeters.
• Out of all of the bee species, the only ones that make honey are honeybees and bumblebees.
• Not all bees make honey. Honeybees and bumblebees are the only ones that create and store honey.
• Bees experience four stages throughout their lives.
Bees go through four stages. They are egg, larva, pupa and adult. You can learn about it in this educational video here.
• There are roughly 30,000 bees in each colony.
Snail
• Snails are very slow moving creatures and most people find them to be boring. However, there are some very interesting facts about them that can help you to see them in a new light. They aren’t brainless creatures as many people think. Many species of snails actually hibernate during the colder months of the year. They cover their bodies with a thin layer of mucus which prevents them from drying out. Sometimes snails are also able to hibernate in the summer to survive if they are faced with a severe drought. They live off of the stored up fat during this time of year. This process is one of the many
reasons why they have been able to survive for more than 60 million years.
• The life span for snails depends on their habitat and the species. Some of them only live for about 5 years. However, others in the wild are believed to be at least 25 years old. Many researchers believe the life span of snails is decreasing due to humans destroying their habitat and due to pollution.
• The largest land snail recorded weighed only 2 pounds and was 15 inches long. It was discovered in 1976. Others are extremely small being only a few centimeters long when they are adults and weighing just a couple of ounces.
Lady bug
• Ladybugs (also called lady birds and lady beetles) are small, oval-shaped winged insects. These shiny insects are usually red with black spots or black with red spots on the wing covers. The number of spots identifies the type of ladybug. Most ladybugs are less than 1/4 inch (4-8 mm) long. As ladybugs age, the color of the spots fade. Birds are the major predator of the ladybug. Ladybugs will play dead when threatened. DIET:
These tiny predators are usually very welcome in gardens because ladybug larvae and adults eat aphids, mealybugs, and mites (which are garden pests). Ladybug larvae can eat about 25 aphids a day; adults can eat over 50. There are about 5,000 different species of ladybugs throughout the world. A common species is the two-spotted ladybug; it is orange red with one black spot on each wing cover.
ANATOMY
Ladybugs are winged insects (a type of beetle). When they are not flying, the flight wings are covered and protected by a pair of modified wings (called elytra). When flying, the elytras open up, allowing the wings to move. The area above the elytra is called the pronotum (it is part of the thorax). The pronotum frequently has grayish spots on it. The head of the ladybug is very tiny (and frequently confused with the pronotum). Females are larger than males.
• Like all insects, ladybugs have: • 6 jointed legs (arranged as 3 pairs) • one pair of antennae
• an exoskeleton made of chitin (a type of strong protein similar to the one that forms our hair and fingernails) • a three-part body consisting of the:
– head (which has the mouthparts, compound eye, and antennae)
– thorax (the middle section which is where the 3 pairs of legs and the pairs of wings attach)
– abdomen (which holds the excretory and reproductive organs and most of the digestive system)
• LIFE STAGES
The ladybug, like all beetles, undergoes a complete metamorphosis during its life. The life stages of the ladybug are: egg --> larva --> pupa --> adult.
Spider
• • Spiders eat spiders. Females sometimes eat their mates, even while they are mating. Some spiders specialize in hunting down other species of spider and have evolved ways to grab them, even when their victims are in the center of their strongholds—their webs. • • Spiders are hunted as much as they are hunters. Birds, lizards, snakes, scorpions, and other spiders all prey on spiders. Some
insects also hunt down spiders, including the mantis and a wasp that specializes in catching and paralyzing spiders. The wasp buries the spider alive, so that its young can feed on fresh food when they hatch.
• • Most spiders have eight eyes. Some have no eyes and others have as many as 12 eyes. Most can detect only between light and dark, while others have well-developed vision. Experiments have demonstrated that some spiders can recognize and respond to specific shapes on television monitors. However they're equipped to see, all spiders have highly evolved systems to detect prey and danger. • • Some cultures have found ways to use a spider's trap to get their own meals. In the South Pacific native people have made fishing
nets from a spider's silk. People encourage nephila spiders to build webs between two bamboo stakes, which are then used for angling.
Fly
• Fruit flies live for 8-10 days. In that time, females lay around 500 eggs, using rotting fruit or vegetables as their nest. •
Size: 1/8"
• Shape: Small, oval • Color: Tan
• Legs: 6 • Wings: Yes • Antenna: Yes
• Common Name: Fruit Fly • Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Arthropoda • Class: Insecta • Order: Diptera
• Family: Drosophilidae
• Species: Drosophila melanogaster
• DIET Fruit flies feed on decaying fruits and vegetables.
• HABITAT Fruit flies are commonly found in homes, restaurants and other facilities where food is processed. They are especially attracted to garbage that has just been sitting around.
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