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Exploring the beauty of nature
Over the past couple of weeks our ever-learning preschool(Koru) room tamariki have become a little more familiar with new areas of life, which has included nature. While the weather has been a little chaotic and unpredictable, this hasn’t stopped them from exploring and creating new projects along the way, in fact it has enhanced their desire to explore and learn more. Our tamariki have managed to plant new plants with their teachers and learnt what plants they are and how to care for them too. They also started to learn all about insects, bugs and beetles, which our tamariki were very curious about.
With an equal amount of fascination and passion to learn more, our amazing teaching team came together tosupport the children's idea to create a giant earth worm using egg cartons, the tamariki paintedthe earth worm and worked alongside the teacher to glue it together and to lay him on the ground.
What a fun and creative experience this has been for our tamariki, learning all about worms, ants and other insects, from our teachers and parents.
Tamariki were able to help create an insect box outside to continue their search for new insects and created a tank inside to house their little insects. Tamariki have learnt about many different species, both in New Zealand and world-wide. It has been such a pleasure to watch our children and their teachers grow and build their knowledge of the nature that’s lives around us.
Fun Fact:
- Ants are the longest living insects - Unlike some bugs who might only live for days or even hours, the queen ant of one particular species – the Pogonomyrmex Owyheei – can live up to 30 years – so be careful not to stand on her!
- Worms Breath Through Their Skin and Have No Lungs. All living animals need oxygen. Worms cannot breath in through their mouth, and they don’t have a nose either. Instead of lungs, worms have a thin permeable skin through which oxygen in air passes through. The mucas on a worms skin helps to dissolve the oxygen. Therefore, worms need moisture. If a worms dries out, they suffocate. Likewise, if a worms environment is too moist, they drown.