Crickets are Insects, Worms are Not

I forgot I had these great pictures to post from our insects week in April.

First we learned about caterpillars, butterflies and moths. We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and Butterflies and Moths by Nic Bishop. Then we started as caterpillars and ate caterpillar food (a lettuce leaf with dip and an egg). Then we made a caterpillar craft. We learned that most caterpillars have 6 real legs--that turn into the actual legs of the butterfly or moth, and 10 prolegs, or false legs. Who knew? :) Then everyone climbed into their sleeping bags for metamorphosis and came out as butterflies with actual wings. We had butterfly food for lunch (juice through a flower straw and flower shaped sandwiches) and made a butterfly craft. Last we learned that insects have 6 legs, a hard exoskeleton, and 3 body parts.

THEN CAME THE CRICKETS!!! We read The Very Quite Cricket by Eric Carle and Singing Crickets by Linda Glaser. Then we made cricket houses. Each student got a boy cricket and a girl cricket purchased from the pet store. Girls have a "tail", an egg-laying chute while only boy crickets sing. They put some grass, an apple slice, some dry cereal and a small sponge with water in a jar covered with toole for a cricket house and viola! New pets. :)

The next day we reviewed all that we'd learned about insects and then read the book WORMS by Ann Heinrichs. We learned that worms are not insects. Then we set up a worm experiment layering different colors of dirt and sand in a plastic cup. We added worms on top and we were supposed to see that a worm's job is to mix dirt. Unfortunately, the worms I bought were old from Walmart and the ones in my kids cups died right away. OOPS. Sorry.