Tending to our community gardens & stick and feaf insect adaptations and yoga!

Our Tuesday friends tended to our community garden today. We cared for our seeds and seedlings by watering them using spray bottles. We also planted two basil plants in our garden boxes. Friends helped choose the spots for the basil and helped to dig holes. We then released the basil plants from the containers by gently squeezing the container, examined the root structure of the basil, and nestled the plants into the garden soil. We then watered the new plants and the rest of our gardens in the courtyard space.

Today we again explored our stick and leaf insects. We all gathered around their habitat and found all four of the creatures. We noticed how big the baby brown stick bug is growing. At circle we talked about “animal adaptations” and learned stick and leaf bugs use camouflage to help them hide from predators. Some friends helped to explain “camouflage” and R had the idea that the insects would probably hide in the forest to blend with the trees. We also learned the Giant prickly stick insect uses a “scorpion” pose in order to keep predators away. By using this pose, predators may believe the insect is actually a scorpion with a stinger. This fact led us to stick insect yoga! We tried out our version of scorpion pose and laid flat on our bellies then arched our backs to reach blackberry leaves for dinner. We laid still pretending to be asleep during the day (Leaf and stick insects are nocturnal!). And we thought about how to walk like a stick bug. We tried a version of that looked a bit like crab pose and then tried walking on all fours with our belies toward the floor.

We the learned and/or revisited our Stick Insect song (to the tune of Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes)

Head, thorax, abdomen
six legs!
Head, thorax, abdomen
six legs!
Compound eyes and antennae
Head, thorax, abdomen
six legs!