CREEK STOMPING-POND DIPPING
(Make arrangements at Clay Junior High to observe Environmental Pond)
Lilly Pond
School Pond
If time and weather permit have  a Picnic for the Bugs” in my backyard pond-- Room mother--get parent volunteers--make arrangements for schoolbus.)
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Insects and  other minibeast live in ponds, too.  Some spend only part of their life underwater, some live  in the water  all of their lives.  Some can breathe underwater using gills  and some need to come to the surface to breathe air.  (Open discussion to  see if we can reall what other  animals we have learned about show some of these characteristics).

WATER BOATMEN -- (see Garden disk for minibeast balloon craft -- For Ladybugs too)

(1)Swim all around the pond.
(2)They are called water boatmen because they use their legs like oars of a boat.
(3)Some water boatmen eat plants and some are carnivorous.  (Again--refer back to other mamals, reptiles, etc. and their eating habits--especially dinosaurs that we have studied--plant eaters/meat eaters)
(4) Observe and see which swim on their back and who swims on their front.  
(5)Water boatmen are  insects  and can fly.   (How can we tell they are insects, etc.)

A. Great diving beetle
(2) Daphnia--very tiny they swim but moving their feelers in the water.
(3) Water striders--stide means to--what do you think water striders do?  Where  do you think we might see them on the pond

SNAILS

Snails try to avoid predators  by coming out only at night.   This also keeps them from drying out in the sun.
(1) if it is too hot or too cold out, the snail can shut its door and seal the entrance to its shell with a layer of hard mucus.
(2) most snails are plant eaters, but some do eat other small creatures.
(3) A snail carries its home (who else does this)
(4) a  snail leaves a trail of slime as it moves--how many have seen snail   tracks--they glitter don’t they?  The trail that they leave helops them to slide over rough things.
(5) a snail shell is very important--it protects him. It stops his body from drying out.  (have children thin on field day when it is hot or when they a reoutside very very hot in the sun--how they feel.  Do they “dry out?)  As a snail gets bigger, it lays down more shell and makes a bigger “door” for him to go in and out of.
(6)Birds love to eat snails


Catch a Snail-Make  A New Home

Let’s see if we have snails  around here!.
Take children outside.
Take a flowerpot and  leave it on its side near a damp place out in the woods
Check daily to see for snail tracks!
If we see one visiting its new home, put a tiny red mark on its back--
let’s see if he  visits every day! 

DRAGONFLY

Have dragonfly up in room and prepare for craft to make one for each child to do. --See Garden disk.

Dragonflys are  beautiful don’t you think?  I do!

(1) dragonflys spend the first two years of their life underwater.  (How many of you haev two year aold   brothers or sisters?)--time  reference--dragonflies spend a long time when they are little under water.
(2) dragonflies have wings that are sparkly and transparent--who has seen a dragonfly?
(3) A dragonfly as it   gets older sheds its skin  seven times before it  becomes an adult and leaves the water.  (What else sheds its skin--molts?)

FROGS/TOADS

(African water dogs observation and discussion ongoing)

See if we can find some frog and toad spawn.  Take it inside in tank and observe again--and compare between African water dogs we are observing).

Frogs---again reenforce
Spawn
Tadpole
what happens next?
froglets!

What happens--what have we seen as the tadpoles are growing?  It changes its shape en tirely--it doesn’t look the same at all.   Metamorphosis???   Who else changes its shape as it grows?   Do we change our shape?

(Have some fun if time permits  -- invent a “bug--If I Metamorphosized--I  Would Look Like This!
Have children draw/create their metamorphosis--what would they “turn into”--use large bulletin board paper.)