A Field Trip ~ Stream and Insect Study ~ Part 2

Here is part two of our post about our field trip to a local outdoor education centre.  The first part of this post described the stream study.  This post is about the insect study.

Insect Study

After our stream study, we walked across the bridge to an open field to begin our insect study.

Our leader had placed short pieces of coloured yarn - red, yellow, white, green and brown - around the field.  The yarn represented insects.  The children were asked to pretend they were birds looking for different insects to eat.  Each of our little 'birds' set out to collect the 'insects'.  

Once our little 'birds' had found all the 'insects' they could, we headed off to the gazebo to see what we had collected.

We divided our pieces of yarn into piles according to colour. 


Our piles of red, yellow and white yarn were large, while the green and brown piles were much smaller.  Our leader told us that she hid an equal number of each colour. Why is this the case?  She explained that many insects are green and brown so that they camouflage with their surroundings making it harder for predators to find and eat them.  We also learned a song about the parts of an insect.


After this, the children were given bug boxes so that they could go out into the field again to find some real insects to observe.

We had a fantastic day on our field trip with parents, teachers, grandparents and children learning together.  We all agreed it was our best trip ever!  We will be visiting again in the fall to participate in another program.  We can't wait!