Molesworth Street Kindergarten

From Rachel Abela, 3 and 4 year old Grass Parrots teacher

Exploring Nature and Bugs with the City of Melbourne Park Rangers

City of Melbourne Park Rangers Nick and Jock popped by our kindergarten to learn about bugs with the Grass Parrot Group last week.  Many of our children have shown an interest in the bugs that we find at kindergarten, and we saw this as a good way to consolidate and extend this learning, and to explore ways that we can show respect to our environment.

Nick and Jock started the session by handing out toy bugs for each child to get a close-up view.  We then had to find our bug’s head, it’s thorax and then it’s abdomen. 

Then we headed outside to our playground, where Nick and Jock carefully shook a few bushes and trees, after placing a white sheet under them.   We were excited to find a heap of bugs!  Ants, beetles, spiders and even a leaf insect.  We wondered how all these bugs had made their way all the way up to our level 5 playground!

The session ended with a game – we became bees and collected nectar from flowers for Nick the queen bee.  We even got to play the game wearing some multi-focal glasses to find out what the world might look like for a bee.

During the session, one of the children suggested that we should make our own insects.  So, the following day we used clay, sticks and pieces of wire to model our insects.  We will paint our bugs this week.

In another extension, the children have been heard “playing Park Rangers” in the playground, as they search for bugs and ensure that the bugs that they find are kept safe.

Nia-Zuri said of the incursion, “I loved finding the leaf insect and the little spider”.  

Kheti said “I was trying to find bugs yesterday.  We found a spider!”