Take children outside
to a grassy area to look for and observe grasshoppers. Have children bring their own notebooks or
field/nature journals to draw pictures or make notes in. Remind children to be respectful of the
grasshoppers. Survey which plants they
grasshoppers are eating. Find out where they hide.
Create a terrarium
together that will house several grasshoppers for a week. Use soil and grass
(return to field study area to collect or collect while out observing
grasshoppers). Include places for the
grasshoppers to climb and hide. Providing water is not necessary because grasshoppers do not drink
water, they get enough water from the food they eat. Be sure to provide fresh grass or leafy
plants, as well as dry food such as grass seed or oatmeal, every day for the
grasshoppers to eat. Let the children
be active participants in setting up the terrarium. Tips for terrarium preparation
and care are available on the Growing
Up WILD website.
Once your terrarium is
set up, return to your grasshopper field study location and carefully capture and collect four to six grasshoppers using insect nets and bug jars. Place the grasshoppers in the terrarium.
Over the course of a
week give children time every day to observe and monitor the grasshoppers. Ask:
What do you want to learn about grasshoppers?
How can you find out the answers to your questions? For younger children
you may want to have a set observation for each day. For example, Day One: observe the
grasshopper’s bodies. What do you notice?
Count the legs and antennae. How can you tell the grasshoppers have wings?
Describe their eyes Day Two: observe the movement of the grasshoppers. Describe how the grasshoppers walk. How do
they jump? Are they fast? Do they jump high/far?
At the end of the week
when the study is over, return the grasshoppers to the location where you
collected them. Use the information you
gathered as a class to create your own book about grasshoppers.
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