Birthdays and Butterflies

It was an epic day for the Tucker Room. We started with Jossie’s birthday celebration in the classroom. The children loved the story Pigeon HAS to Go to School. ​

​After celebrating Jossie, we all headed to the Natural History Museum Insect Zoo and Butterfly Pavilion. We learned so many things! Did you know that insects, spiders, and millipedes all belong to a family called arthropods? We also learned that scorpions glow under fluorescent light, and that when Blue Morpho butterflies look like they’re playing tag they are really fighting over territory. We learned that tarantulas have an exoskeleton that they shed when they grow, and that their hair is super soft and fuzzy! We saw lots of bugs camouflaging themselves, including a huge stick insect and a very small wolf spider. 

We also got to watch a tarantula feeding, and asked lots of great questions, like: Do they catch butterflies with a net? How do worms fight? Are caterpillars awake only at night? Do caterpillars sleep in the winter? How do caterpillars sting? How long will it take the tarantula to eat the cricket? Wy do butterflies have so many colors and patterns? 
 
We got a few answers, but this outing generated even more questions for our research going forward. What a spectacular day! Thanks to all of our chaperones for your assistance and documentation of this morning’s trip. We couldn’t have done it without you!