Newsletter

      Hello, Preschool 3 families! This week we focused our bug study on two particular bugs; ladybugs and bees! The class knew that ladybugs were red with black spots. However, we learned that some ladybugs are orange as well. Ladybugs also touch and taste using their antennas. Our friends were shocked to find that ladybugs have four wings. They have two thin wings that help them fly and two hard wings that cover the thin ones. We learned that ladybugs like to eat leaves and aphids with their jaws. The class learned that there is a beetle that looks just like a ladybug, called a ladybeetle. Ladybeetles tend to be a bit lighter in color and have a lot more black dots than a ladybug.

 

      Our friends learned some fascinating facts about bees. Did you know that it's the bee's wings flapping that makes the buzzing sounds that we know bees for? Bees also sip nectar from flowers. They can move pollen from one flower to another, which helps flowers make new seeds! Did you know that bees can be in other colors besides black and yellow? They can also be blue or green.  Bees live in groups called colonies. They build hives where they take nectar and put it in a part of the hive called the honeycomb cells. There the nectar will turn into honey. We found out that each hive has a queen bee and she is the biggest bee in the hive. All the female bees are the worker bees who protect the hive and feed the young. We found out that we get our honey from bees. We also get beeswax from the bees that we use to make crayons and candles. Our friends were delighted to learn about the bee's stingers. We learned that bees will only sting when they feel threatened or if they are protecting themselves. Some bees like honey bees, will die not long after stinging.              

 

      The class had a blast doing cute ladybug and bee activities this week. We did a counting activity that required our friends to count the spots on a ladybug. The class got to roll dice and put the corresponding spots on one of the ladybug's wings. They rolled again and put that many spots on the other wing. Once all the spots were on our friends got to count how many spots were on the ladybug total. We also got to make a pretty portrait of flowers using finger paint and our fingerprints. We got to add cute bugs to our flowers. Our friends made adorable bees using their handprints and paint. To give our bumblebees a home we made beehives using the tops of plastic bottles that we dipped in yellow paint. The class got to pretend they were pollinating bees by picking up yellow pom poms (pollen) with tweezers (their legs) and depositing them to cupcake liners (flowers). Our friends got to play a fun game of looking for hidden toy bees in a tray full of honeycomb cereal. The class had a blast searching for the bees and snacking on some of the cereal! The class had the most fun making honey playdough! Our friends got a special treat this week. They got to pretend that they were sucking out the guts of a bug, like a spider, by slurping up applesauce through a straw.