Summer Camp Recap: Bugs in the Burgh

By Carolyn Carlins, Facilitator, Phipps Science Education and Research

Summer Camp Recap - is our weekly seasonal segment featuring our summer camp programs. This is the place for camp parents to find pictures of their campers in action and see all the fun things we did all week. It’s also a great place for educators to pick up craft, story and lesson ideas for their own early childhood programs!

Bugs in the Burgh

Last week’s camp, A Bug’s World, explored the lives of four different insects. Every day campers buzzed with energy venturing outdoors to encounter butterflies, bees, ladybugs, dragonflies, and other creepy crawlers. During the week our campers sang insect songs, made observations about symmetry in the butterfly forest, and learned how pollinators help plants grow. We even met two bug experts at Phipps who showed us millipedes and played a game about the difference between butterflies and moths. Afterwards we helped our experts release ladybugs into the conservatory! Hope all of our campers had as much fun flying and crawling with the bugs as we did!

Backyard Connection:

Be a bug scientist! Make a bait trap to catch and observe bugs in your own backyard. All you need is a potato or an apple! Cut your bait into a small wedge. Place it in a spot where it will not be disturbed. Check your trap every few hours or every day for a week. Observe your bugs and draw what you find. 

Rhyme time! Use this rhyme to learn about predators and prey. You can use birds/ladybugs, dragonflies/mosquitos, ladybugs/aphids etc.

Five little lady bugs sitting on a leaf

Soaking up the sun and the soft warm breeze

Along came Mr. Bird, quiet as can be

And snatched that ladybug right off the tree

Four little ladybugs…

Three little ladybugs…

Two little ladybugs…

One little ladybug…

For more pictures from this week's camp, please visit the Science Education and Research Facebook page here!

Photographs taken by Science Education staff.