Getting bugged again

It's time for 'please bug me' week at work. I have a new game that was donated by one of the summer parents, 'Bug Bingo' that ought to be fun, a bunch of new specimens encased in acrylic and have told children that they should bring in dead bugs with the help of their parents... but not to kill any. We'll look at them with the eyeclops. They love it when I haul that thing out.

The kids come get me when they find a creature sharing our space so I can catch it.

We all gather around the container and examine what I catch until the kids have seen enough, then I put it outside. Teaching them respect for the smallest of lives is still an important thing to me.

Today it was a beetle. I don't know a lot about them, except that some of them smell really bad when they're frightened or you hurt one, so I was careful when I caught it. I can confess here that I really don't like catching bugs, but the kids are depending on me to do it without screaming like a girl. ;)

A teachable moment, as they say. Important to recognize them and not let the opportunity to learn pass by. The best kind, too. No tests, no awkward regurgitation of information to make sure one has 'learned' it. My favorite.

So we'll make bugs in various forms, I have some color diffusing paper with bugs pre-printed on it and we'll make bookmarks, we have bug bingo, we have 'roll a bug' which is a game I invented where you roll dice to determine each feature of your critter and draw it and place it in a habitat.

But of course that's next week. I have to get through this week first. And I'm going to bed early.

Yeah, I know. When do I NOT go to bed early?
:)