Advanced Bug Hunting

One of our many focuses outside revolves around hunting for bugs. We flip over stumps to see what might be living underneath. We search beneath rocks and near our plants. We dive into the bamboo to see if a bug may be hiding among the leaves. Closely examining a tree trunk sometimes yields a positive result! Our bug hunting efforts sometimes involve just a few children and other times all of us search in small groups around the yard. Usually once we find a bug we look at it for a while then find it a home. It gives us an opportunity to discuss the life cycles of bugs and their habitats- two things that tend to interest us about almost any living thing these days. The other day, though, the bug hunting expanded beyond our typical territory. Once we found a bug, what else could we do with it?

First we need to find a bug. A few groups bounded around the yard looking underneath things and next to things and on top of things... then A, S, and J found a bug under our stepping stone we recently made in small group! They carefully procured the bug and children from all around the yard took turns looking at it closely. As we peered closely we studied it and compared our observations of the bug to our knowledge about bugs. How many legs did it have? Eight! That means it's a spider. What might it eat? Other bugs! We didn't have any of those, though, so A, S, and J put some grass and leaves into a bowl to make a home for the spider. They proceeded to carry the spider and its' home around the yard showing it various places that we play and what we can do there. After a while, they settled near our small climbing structure. 

A: "This is our spider friend now. It's going to live in this bowl!"
J: "Yeah! That bowl is a boat. It lives in a boat!"
S: "A boat! A boat in the water!"
A: "Yeah, because spiders don't like to be IN the water."
J left and collected a hoop then put it next to the spider's boat home. A watched him intently then asked, "What's that for?"
J: "It's to protect him."
A: "Oh yeah! Because he's bait. We need to put it around him, though."
J: "Yeah! Like in fishing."
A: "Spider bait! Spider bait!"
S: "Oh he's a spider bait!"
I asked, "What are you catching?"
A: "We don't know. Whatever eats spiders. We are just hunting so we needed bait."
S: "We have to be quiet while we hunt now."