magic forest academy-insects

8/12/2019 Magic Forest Academy-Insects

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Insects

Reading, Arts & Crafts,Math, Science, Fun &Games,

Recipes and moreAges 7-12

Magic Forest Academy Imaginative, Seasonal, Natural Learning

www.MagicForestAcademy.com

Insects are born from the sun.they aresuns kisses l e x a n d e r S c r i a b i n #


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MAGIC FOREST ACADEMY INSECTS

ARTS & CRAFTS

Insect Curio Display

Bug Scientists display their insect treasures in curio boxes, so we thought

it appropriate to introduce this fun craft of making your own Insect Curiodisplay. Curio is shortened to mean Curiosities. In historic times,people would collect and display curiosities in a special cabinet or box,creating a trend that still remains popular with todays hobbyists.Curiosities can be a collection of any sort such as thimbles, coins,stamps, or insects! Keeping your collections organized and tidy in acabinet or box not only preserves them, but once theyre filled andtucked away, they become a delightful find years later when youdiscover again whats hiding inside.Curio Displays are often made of fine wood and craftsmanship, but youcan make a lovely d isplay using discarded boxes and creativity. You willneed one larger shallow box as your main cabinet, and then numerousshapes and sizes that are smaller. In our example above, we used a

discarded shoebox lid and empty jewelry and matchbox bottoms.First, poke two small holes in the back of your larger box at the topcenter, and then weave a long sturdy piece of rope or string through,securing it with a knot. This will be needed to hang your display boxlater. Next, Paint or decoupage the smaller boxes and then arrange theminside the larger box so they fit nice and snug. Glue the backs of thesmaller boxes to the larger box so they are secured. You could opt toVelcro them instead if you wish to take theboxes out at times. Once the glue dries, secureyour curiosities inside the small boxes. Weused glue to attach our insect collection. Theseare insects we find naturally perished duringnature walks. Its okay if you dont have realinsects! We also used some of our toy plasticinsects, and some insect paper cutouts. Weeven used a beaded Dragonfly we made. Useyour creativity to fill your display boxes. Onceyour Curio boxes are filled, find a place to dis-play it. You can place it upon a shelf, or secure it to a picture hook withthe string.

Encourage your friends to create their own Curio Displays, and you canhave a Curio Party where everyone brings their curiosities to share!

STORY

Joey Fly, Private Eye Story by Aaron Reynolds

Illustrations by Neil Numberman

If you like learning about animals andstrange creepy-crawly bugs, youlllove the graphic book series of JoeyFly, Private Eye. Each book is aunique and witty detective mysterysolved by Joey Fly and his assistant, ayoung scorpion named Sammy

Stingtail, but not without a bit ofadventure and intrigue, as well as a lotof slapstick and buggy wisecracks. Inthe case of the Creepy CrawlyCrime, a swallowtail butterfly namedDelilah hires Joey to find her missingdiamond pencil box. There arenumerous suspects throughout thestory, starting with Gloria, theladybug friend of Delilah, but as thefacts start to line up like centipedes ata shoe sale, the real culprit isrevealed to the shock of all.

"To see the forest amongst the trees, one need only to close their eyes to hear the chirping ofthe crickets, the wriggling of the worms, and the buzzing of the bees." ~Magic Forest ~


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Grab some friends and head to a field ormeadow to play this hilarious game.

Teams of two line up at the starting line witheach player getting down on all fours(hands/legs) behind each other. The players

behind grab the ankles of the players in frontand latch on. At the count of Go, each teammust crawl towards the finish line withoutletting go of each others ankles. The firstteam to cross the finish line wins.

Trust us, this sounds easier than it really is!

If you dont have enough players for theabove version, then try having players race bygetting on their tummies and wigglingtowards the finish line.

Cricket Temperature

Did you know that with a little bit of math and some chirpingcrickets nearby, you couldcalculate the temperatureoutside?

Its not a formal method used for determining theweather; however, it does work and is even endorsed

by the Old Farmers Almanac. There are severalidentified methods to use, which you can researchfurther, but the Old Farmers Almanac method todetermine the Fahrenheit temperature outside is tolisten and count the number of chirps you hear froma cricket over a 15 second interval and then add 37to the number you counted. The value you calculateis equivalent to the degrees of Fahrenheit outside.For example, if you hear 25 chirps as you count to15, add 37 to 25 and you have now calculated thatthe temperature outside is 62 degrees Fahrenheit.

15 seconds = 25 chirps + 37 = 62

The reason this is possible is because crickets arecold-blooded, and their surrounding temperaturesimpact a chemical reaction inside their bodies,causing them to chirp more or less depending on theoutside temperature.

Now that you know the secret formula to calculatingthe temperature outside, its time to start listening tocrickets chirping! Keep in mind that the formulamay vary depending on the different species ofcrickets.

MATH

If two people find that they have the same idea or desire the same thing, tthey% ve been$ Bitten by the Same Bug" . This does not mean a real bug has bitten eof them, but just figuratively, indicating that they have parallel obsession

The above scenario only works with temperatures at orabove 55 degrees Fahrenheit; otherwise, the crickets will

find temperatures to be a bit too cold to chirp.

Caterpillar Race

FUN AND GAMES


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SCIENCE

If youre keen on studying insects, then building a Bug Hotelwill come in quite handy, because once you open your hotel youwill have lots of lovely creatures coming to visit. Bug Hotels areone of the most fun creations you can make in the name ofscience as well. You can build a small hotel, or a grand hotel, andyou can make it look however you wish. You can use a variety ofmaterials to fill your hotel rooms, and depending on what youuse, insects will either use your hotel for nesting or hibernating.The great thing about this project is that you will be encouraginga healthy insect population that will help pollinate and controlother pests.

You want to build your main hotel frame first. You can use onesmall container for a small hotel, or stack an array of containers on a surface to create somethinglarger. Used wooden pallets are often given for free at hardware stores and can be stacked one ontop of the other, leaving hollowed areas to build your hotel rooms. In our example we used one

pallet propped against a wall with containers are various sorts stacked inside. All of our containerswere previously used but put to a new purpose. Some ideas for containers are emptied cans, oldflowerpots, mortar bricks or cinder blocks, or emptied baskets. Make sure you place your hotel in aslightly shaded area, preferably near a damp environment. Once you have your main structure built,then start building your different habitats using various materials; such as, bricks, broken bits ofclay, hay, sticks, moss, bramble, bark, dried leaves, rocks, cones, wool, bamboo rods, logs withsmall holes, smooth stones and potted flowers to attract pollinators. It is also fun to decorate yourBug Hotel with faux flowers, ivy and, of course, a hotel sign!

Once youve built your hotel, keep a journal tracking what types of bugs use which type of habitat, and how they use it throughout theseasons. You might like reading the book Insect Hotel, by DavidStringer as a companion book for this activity.

RECIPE

Dont worry were not suggesting that you eat real ladybugs! Instead, these aresmall tomatoes cleverly cut and decorated to look just like ladybugs. You willneed a handful of small cherry tomatoes, a can of sliced black olives and somechives to make the ladybugs. After washing your tomatoes, slice them in half,and then slice each half through the middle leaving the top secured. Spread a

bit of cream cheese or other desired spread on your favorite cracker and placea tomato half on each cracker with the flat side touching the cracker. Spread the split halves slightly apart tomake the ladybug wings. Place an olive slice at the top to make the head, resting the olive against the tomato,and then poke two sprigs of chives through the olive to make the antenna. If you dont have chives you canuse thinly sliced green onions. Next, cut some olives into tiny pieces for the Ladybug spots. Carefully placethe olive bits on to the Ladybug wings. They will surprisingly stick to the tomato without needing anythingelse to secure them in place. You now have a lovely garden of Ladybugs to enjoy!

If you do not fancy eating tomatoes and olives, you can substitute the tomatoes with strawberries and theolives with blueberries. Use whipped cream as the spread and cookies instead of crackers.

Entomology is the scientific study of insects.

Bug Hotel

Ladybug Crackers


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