February Review:
Lessons Learned from Inspecting Insects (and Arachnids!)
Listen to the bees and let them guide you.
-Brother Adam
I can’t BEE-LIEVE that February is over, and Spring is almost here! After a wonderful exploration of seed sprouting in January, our February exploration of the natural world was all about bugs and how they help our world grow and thrive.
We started the month of February with a buzz learning all about the importance of bees, how they work together collectively in their hives to take care of one another (and of course make delicious honey!), as well as the different roles that bees play in pollinating our flowers to ensure our plants grow. We also got our hands dirty with wiggly earthworms, learning about how these little wigglers are important not only for aerating the soil as they wiggle through it finding things to snack on but also as the composters of the ground helping to fertilize the soil with what they leave behind. We even got our own little classroom worm farm that the kiddos love to look at and check on our little worm friends.
This month, we also learned about how insects and bugs communicate with each other which is different from how we humans communicate. We learned that bees dance to signal where the best flower nectar is and that ants use their antennae similar to how humans shake hands. We even made our own bug antennas out of pipe cleaners and beads and the kiddos pretended to be ants wiggling their antennae at each other in greeting. We were also in luck with a few windy days that allowed us to take our butterfly kites out for a spin! Lastly, we got to get up close and personal with some ladybugs Teacher Cait got from the gardening store. It was so fun to let the ladybugs crawl on our hands and watch them fly away to new plant homes.
We closed out the month with an epic field trip to the Wildlife Learning Center where we got to learn about and see a bunch of incredible wild animals like sloths, eagles, armadillos, and even a giraffe! We even got to gently touch some of the animals we learned. My favorite was definitely the armadillo.
February was full of bug-themed arts, crafts, scavenger hunts, and dramatic play. As a bug-lover myself, it was amazing to see the children so excited to interact with and learn about these little critters that are not only important for our earth but have much to teach us about working together, how to communicate with one another, and how to live in harmony with our beautiful planet Earth.
-Teacher Cait
We’ve reached the end of another wonderful month at OCP! Somehow, this second half of the school year seems to be even better than the first. Our kids are building friendships with each other as they play, and it’s exciting to see how each child has grown so far this year. As the first months of 2022 fly by, we find ourselves already thinking about the 2022-2023 school year. Our working parents love when park-goers stop and ask “what is this?” because we get to share how our unique school works. So, we couldn’t be any more excited about the chance to open OCP’s doors to interested families at a special Open House on Saturday, April 16th. Join us as we continue to build on the beautiful almost 30 years of OCP!
-Jenna, VP of the Board
