Beneficial Insects–July 14, 2011
Jack led a beneficial insect session inspired by the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension’s Beneficial Insects in the Garden and the book The Organic Gardener’s Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control : A Complete Problem-Solving Guide to Keeping Your Garden & Yard Healthy without Chemicals edited by Barbara W. Ellis and Fern Marshall Bradley. We asked the kids to draw a beneficial insect and they could use their imagination or use the steps in Draw 50 Creepy Crawlies by Lee J. Ames if they wanted. Other children’s books we looked at were Through the Microscope – Insects by John Stidworthy and Entomology by Ellen Doris.
Outside kids harvested peas, sampled purple beans, hilled the potatoes, planted corn and green peppers, tied up the tomatoes, noticed green beans sprouting and pulled bolted lettuces and the rest of the collard greens and composted them.
- explore beneficial insects through pictures, reading and drawing
- harvest ripe vegetables
- hill potato plants
- pull bolted lettuces and collard greens and compost
- plant corn and green peppers
- tie tomatoes to frames
