I found this bug in my driveway, the poor fellow was already deceased. The only other bug I have found this big was a Locust. This was not a Locust. I took it to school to show the children and many of them commented on how smelly it was. Sure enough I looked online and it is a Jerusalem Cricket. It's not really a cricket. They live in the dirt and eat plant roots. They are smelly (so it's not from the decay) and have strong mandibles for eating roots and digging. They drum their abdomens against the ground as a mating call. Way Cool! The children are very interested in bugs and insects in our class. They include our classroom critters, the mealworms and the red wrigglers, in our good morning song - it's very sweet. They always remind me if I forget to sing good morning to the bugs. It's nice to see them not squeamish as I remember being as a child. That's why I think it's important for me to model respectfulness and not be squeamish (though with spiders that is harder for me!). I am not happy with the quality of the photo of the Jerusalem Cricket - will try and take another picture during the day time.
On another note we are starting to talk about Antarctica in class. We have been talking about how it is the coldest and windiest continent. Amazingly it is also the driest. The reason there is so much snow is that the snow stays - it doesn't melt. So soon, during circle, we are going to watch shaved ice (no access to snow here in our part of California) melt and show ice that is kept cold stays the same. Brrrrr.
I tried to create works for my synthesis in all or most areas of the classroom. My son, Max, was way into Geology at the time and his interest was contagious. So I wanted to make a forest geology work. This is a matching work. In the first picture, in the back row - is a bottled stick with tree sap, next to that is a piece of a tree, and next to that is pine needles. You match these to their fossilized counterparts (amber, fossilized wood, and a plant fossil). Another option was a container of maple syrup for the sap (see next photo). I would love to do something with a petrified forest sometime! Oh well, this makes for a good segue into fossils.
