Week 1: Insects!

 We are learning about insects this week!  We'll be catching (& releasing) insects on our nature walk.  

From page 297 of The Handbook of Nature Study:

"It must be remembered that while many people refer to all insects as bugs, the term bug is correctly applied only to one group of insects. This group includes such forms as stinkbugs, squash bugs, plant lice, and tree hoppers."

Remember that an insect has three body parts: head, thorax, and abdomen.  They have six legs, which are all attached to their thorax.  

Want to read more about insects?  Click here to read the wikipedia definition.

Some activities about insects:

Amazing Adventure #2: The Sheet Trick

To observe insects more closely, take a white sheet or towel outside and spread it under a plant. Shake the plant or wiggle it with a stick. See if any insects fall out onto the cloth. Quickly transfer the insects to a collection jar with holes for air. Closely observe your insects. Draw them in an insect journal, paying close attention to details. Look them up in an insect guide and list in your journal what benefits they may provide. When you are finished, remember to release the insects where you found them. (Source)

At home this week:

Next week we are going to be learning about the sun and talking a bit about the moon.  Be sure to stay up a bit late with your family on the evening of September 12th and observe the "Harvest Moon".

This will be a fun activity and evening for our family, since September 12th also happens to be Miss Mally Munchkins birthday!

Here is info from wikipedia:

"All full moons rise around the time of sunset. In general the moon rises about 50 minutes later each day. As it moves in orbit around Earth, the Harvest Moon and Hunter's Moon are special because, around the time of these half moons, the time difference between moonrise on successive evenings is shorter than usual. This means that the moon rises approximately 30 minutes later from one night to the next, as seen from about 40 degrees N. or S. latitude. Thus, there is no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise around the time following these full moons. In times past this feature of these autumn moons was said to help farmers working to bring in their crops (or, in the case of the Hunter's Moon, hunters tracking their prey). They could continue being productive by moonlight even after the sun had set. Hence the name Harvest Moon.
The reason for the shorter-than-usual rising time between successive moonrises around the time of the Harvest and Hunter's Moon is that the ecliptic—the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun—makes a narrow angle with respect to the horizon in the evening in autumn."