Worms and Bugs Hunting

It’s all about worms and bugs in Flowers today. Our morning table activities surprised when we saw a tub of colorful oats with bugs and worms hiding in it! We were so tempted to use our hands to take the bugs and worms out of the tub. To work on our tiny muscles in our fingers, we used chopsticks to “rescue” the bugs and worms. Y and A enjoyed this activity so much that they placed the bugs back into the tub as soon as they finished taking all of them out. On another table, we made a worm by threading five small white Styrofoam pieces. After Ky finished his worm craft, he said, “Wait. Worm is not white. We need to paint this. Brown paint. Let’s paint it”. And so, we did. Some of our friends suggested that some worms are white so we prepared two colors of paint for our worms. We can’t wait to see them in the room!

            Since we had been excited about worms and bugs, we tried our luck to find some at Arisugawa Park. Luckily, Petals class was at the same park, looking for bugs as well. We had such a fun time lifting rocks, peeking through holes, and checking the leaves and grass for our bug hunting. We also walked around the pond and checked what animals we could find in it. We were thrilled to see so many huge fish! While watching them move around the pond, B noticed something. She said, “Oh there’s a blue balloon in there. I don’t like that it’s there because it should not be there. The fish might eat it and they could die!”. When our friends heard her, Ch and K said, “We will not throw trash in the pond because the fish might think it’s food and eat it”. It is amazing to note that our friends are aware how trash could hurt animals. This would be an interesting topic to talk about in the future.

 LET’S TALK ABOUT WORMS

            We seldom talk about worms and so now that we are, we feel so excited each time we have an opportunity to share what we think about them.

            After learning a new song about worms (Wiggly Woo), we exchanged ideas about them.

Vieda: Where do you think worms live?

            Ch: In the soil.

            B: Underground

            K: In dirt, but not in the bedrock. Bedrock is a hard flood. The axe cannot break it.

            N: Maybe if you knock it hard with a hammer.

            Ch: Will it break if a tall building crashes on it?

            K: No, you need 90 TNT to blow up one block of bedrock.

            Ky: Arisugawa jungle, find bugs. Chiba house lots of bugs.

  Vieda: What do you think about worms?
            Ch: Worms wiggle all the time.

            K: The birds can eat worms.

            Ky: Worms no eyes, no mouth and no nose. Only feet but not like our feet.

            K: We paint our worms this morning because it has no color.

            Then our friends joined in by saying that they have seen different colors of worms such as brown, purple, and red.

  We became a bit curious as to what body parts do worms have. Could they have the same as humans?

            Ch: I think worms have heart and brain.

            K: I think they have a small brain because they are small.

            N: They have a tummy and a head.

            Vieda: How many hearts do you think worms have?
We had several answers that ranged from 1 to 100! But then Ky raised his hand and said, “Five!”. And we were all in awe when we learned that worms do not have lungs! We learned before that our lungs help us to breathe. And if a person or an animal is not breathing, it means it does not have life anymore. How could worms afford to live if they do not have lungs?

            K: Oh, because they don’t have a nose.

            N: They don’t breathe!

            Ch: Maybe their heart is the one that breathes. Or maybe they breathe through the stomach.

            Can you guess how they breathe? They do through their skin. We’re glad to know this important fact.  When we get the chance to have real worms in Flowers, we need to remember this so we would be able to hold them gently, and not pinch them. Because if we pinch them, the following things could happen:

            C: Because they breathe through the skin, lots of air might come out of their skin.

            Ky: If you step on it, it will die. If you squeeze it in your hand, it will die.

            K: They have a small place to breathe. If we pinch them, they cannot breathe.

            N: They will die in the water, too. If we pinch it so hard, it will block the way for the air.

            We know a lot of amazing facts about worms, and we could not wait to learn more as we move along our new learning theme. For our weekend “homework”, please think about some reasons why worms are important.

            Have a great weekend!

Love,
Flowers