It was bug day at the library this week and boy was it busy!! There were hordes of kids and parents and only a handful of bugs. I think there were only 8 live bugs and a display of dead tarantula parts. Of the live bugs, only two were insects - a ladybug, which I saw the "buglady" catch outside right before we went in, and a cockroach. They also had a tarantula, scorpions, millipedes and a black widow spider. Incidentally I saw a toddler take off with the small box that contained the black widow. Luckily the spider was retrieved before anyone (spider or human) was harmed. It was cool to see the bugs, but I couldn't shake the feeling that my brother-in-law, Dana, could have put together a much more impressive collection of critters. I think I see more bugs just going to their house. In any case, we had fun, elbowed our way in to see a few of the live specimens and did a few bug crafts. Matthew really wanted to hold the tarantula, but there were too many kids wanting to hold him and only one poor tarantula to go around, so we didn't get a turn. Oh well.
One of the crafts was doing crayon rubbings of different insects.Matthew liked that!
I just had to take a picture of the crowd, 'cause it was incredible.
The kids doing some bug rubbings.
The other craft was glueing bug shapes to a paper bag to make a bug lunch sack. Here's Matthew working on his. Anna had her own ideas about how this should go. She took the bug shapes and put them inside the bag. Then she (sort of) wrote "Anna" on the outside. She carried her bug bag around the crowded library, stopping periodically to take all the bug shapes out, line them up on the floor and then put them back in the bag.
She took some of the bug shapes and glued them in her bug rubbing book (gasp) instead of on the paper bag. Anna is such a craft rebel.
Here Anna checks out one of the tarantula containers. Not sure if he was in there at the time or not. It was a fun "bug day" but Dana, if you ever start doing the library bug circuit, you'll have to come to our library to show them how it's done. :)
3 comments:
I am so impressed your kids didn't freak at the spiders! I hate spiders! They don't have a prayer of chance at living in my house. My rule, inside is my domain, enter at your own risk; outside, that's where critters belong! That was a close call with the black widow. Tarantulas are delicate. Too much handling and they'll die. One of our boys 2nd grade class had one and the kids were passing it around too much and it dropped on the floor and that was it. It curled up and died! Glad the kids had fun! Even our Julie could have had a much more spectacular bug display. She did one for one of Michelle's kids' class and it was impressively scary to me! That was funny seeing the lady catch the lady bug before entering the library! I guess it was better than having nothing!
From the size of the crowd, it seems there is great interest in bugs. Here we have an untapped bug audience. One tarantula and so many hands!!!! I remember Mr. Jundanian's great animal shows at the Oak Creek Nature Center. Birds of prey, reptiles, etc.
What a good mom to take the kids to the library.
Go your library for having a bug day! Dana would love to get into the library circuit; it would be his dream come true to show bugs to little kids all day. Now all we need is a tarantula.
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