2/13
This week was insect week! I started my day at 12 pm with my field supervisor to do a mid-quarter check in, kind of like what we do at Evergreen. We discussed what was going well, what wasn’t, if there were any surprises so far and we chit chatted around these topics for a while. I came into the internship with little expectation, just to expand my knowledge on gardening and hang with the kids and that is exactly what I have gotten and more, so I’m very pleased. She gave me nice feedback, thanking me for my consistency. I guess interns in the past had a habit of not showing up which is beyond me but everyone has their own situations going on in their life.
After our meeting, I was put on the task of forming fruit/vegetable insect snacks! They’re not really insects but rather food formed into looking like bugs, such as ants on a log, you can find more examples I made in my image gallery and above this post. I made several examples as a way to show the kids later in class for the activity we would be doing, I honestly had a blast.
The schedule at Glenfair will be different now because they changed their dismissal format. Kids have to stay in class longer until their bus number or pick up announcement is made, so we have a little less time with the kids but thats okay, not by too much.
- 3:20 to 3:35 – Second lunch
- 3:35 to 3:50 – Circle time
- 3:50 to 4:10 – Recess
- 4:10 to 4:25 – Garden time
- 4:25 to 4:45 – Ladybugs and aphids game
- 4:45 to 5:15 – Food art
We only had 9 students present so it was a fairly easy day energy wise. Circle time involved asking students what they knew about bugs and the garden, we then did another mystery box challenge with a fake bug. We showed them the life cycle of several bugs with little figurines such as bees, ladybugs and butterflies. They LOVED the little toys to the point where they were fighting over who can hold the most. After circle time was recess, then we moved straight into garden time where we asked students why ladybugs are so important for fighting off aphids, they were mind blown! My favorite part of the day was when we showed them the ladybug and aphid costumes they would wear to play tag. Of course they fought over who could wear what but we let everyone have a turn and they were willing to share.
To play the game, the ladybugs had to tag the aphids before the aphids tagged the “plant” (a student wearing screen costume sleeves). They went nuts over it. When we were all finished up we went into the classroom to recreate the bug snacks I showed them, that I made. They got to use strawberries, celery, dried blueberries, apples, grapes and sunflower seeds. With toothpicks, some kids recreated a caterpillar with the grapes while the majority just made random fruit monsters. They got to eat the fruit along the way and all in all had a fun time doing it.