Glen Education Sacred Heart
The Bugs and Stick Insects as our New Kindergarten Pets
Throughout Term 2, we are excited to highlight our new curriculum project that embodies our focus on intentional teaching and reflective practice: The Bugs and Stick Insects as Our New Kindergarten Pets.
This project aligns with our curriculum goals by encouraging independence and confidence.
Children are taking responsibility for the care of stick insects, learning to make choices to nourish and participating in collaborative discussions about their observations and findings.
When Isla brought a caterpillar, she found it at home, sparking a group discussion about insects and bugs. This group time topic has inspired the children to share what they hope to learn in Term 2. As a result, we decided to bring a stick insect into the kindergarten to enhance their learning about insects, bugs and other species that they may find in our kindergarten environment.
Our families, and children are actively involved in caring for the stick insects. They participated in daily tasks such as donating some fresh gum leaves for food, providing water, fixing and cleaning the cage, and fostering a sense of responsibility. When one of the stick insects died over the weekend, it opened a meaningful opportunity for us to engage in a heartfelt discussion. This also helps children self-regulate their emotions during drop-off time in the morning. Acknowledging emotions where some parents contributed valuable insights on the topic of the circle of life. It helps us validate children’s feelings, reassures them that it’s completely normal to feel upset or to question why it happened.
These topics gradually shift to our kindergarten rules the 3B's (Be Safe, Be Kind, and Be Responsible), Problem solving while tracking how children absorb these learning and progress.
We reflected and linked this project to the important First Nation event of acknowledging The Sorry Day and National Reconciliation Week in our program, transitioning reconciliation from conversation to active and creative learning throughout the week. Children have opportunities to share their promises and thoughtful ideas during group time and contribute their handprints to our Promise Tree and to encourage them to honor their promises with their peers and in their learning environment. This learning experience introduces children to new ways of creative thinking that have been used for storytelling by the first nation such as “Dreamtime” in our Camping play area and group time sessions.
Our inquiry project encouraged children to engage in ongoing critical reflection, documenting their experiences on their kindergarten journal through drawing. We opened the discussion of camouflaging insects, investigated how different fabric textures affect adhesion strength, and the behavior of stick insects.
We continue to incorporate this learning into a group and one on one learning discussion of the life cycle, building confidence when interacting with insects, egg hunt learning opportunities while cleaning their habitat. We follow t children’s lead in creative learning environments, we set up both indoors and outdoors water painting, manipulation of clay, chalks and the use of cameras for nature photography, which has led us to create a darkroom learning experience.
We know that children learn best when experiences are connected and built on one another. A thoughtful balance allows us to work together so children can explore different ideas, offering them endless possibilities in an environment that fosters creativity and curiosity, enhancing children emotional and social development, preparing children for a lifetime of exploration and discovery.
