Veggie Bytes. What could this creepy crawly insect be?

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Veggie Bytes. What could this creepy crawly insect be?"

Madlyn Ball
6 years ago
Views:

Veggie Bytes LSU AgCenter February April 2014 Volume 5, Issue 1 Inside this issue: What s Growing 2 Ladybeetles Continued 2 Play Dough Recipe 2 Lady Beetle Lifecycle 3 Make Your Own 4 Arbor Day, It s

Ladybeetles can be found in the garden and school yard as the weather warms.

While we don t like them inside, these tiny critters are truly valuable in the garden. Ladybeetles feast on tiny insects like mites, aphids, and thrips.

It s important to be able to identify beneficial insects in all stage of their life so you don t squish these garden champions.

This PowerPoint is fun for all age levels and will provide you and your class with information on pest and beneficial insects. and the Ladybeetles lifecycle. Story Continued on page 2.

1 Veggie Bytes LSU AgCenter February April 2014 Volume 5, Issue 1 Inside this issue: What s Growing 2 Ladybeetles Continued 2 Play Dough Recipe 2 Lady Beetle Lifecycle 3 Make Your Own 4 Arbor Day, It s not Too Late! 5 Book Review 6 What is That Insect? What could this creepy crawly insect be? Do you know what insect is pictured above? It s a lady bug, or ladybeetle as entomologists call them. Ladybeetles can be found in the garden and school yard as the weather warms. In cooler weather find them under logs and sometimes climbing in the windows of your house looking for a warm place to live. While we don t like them inside, these tiny critters are truly valuable in the garden. Ladybeetles feast on tiny insects like mites, aphids, and thrips. They undergo complete metamorphosis which is very important to know because these helpful guys don t always look as they do when they are adults! It s important to be able to identify beneficial insects in all stage of their life so you don t squish these garden champions. Try this activity with your class below: Visit the LSU AgCenter s school garden website and view the Insects in the School Garden PowerPoint under the PROJECTS section with your class. This PowerPoint is fun for all age levels and will provide you and your class with information on pest and beneficial insects. and the Ladybeetles lifecycle. Story Continued on page 2.. This student is making a model of a ladybeetles lifecycle EPA Looking for Middle School Students to Create Videos The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Environmental Education Foundation have launched a new video contest that asks middle school students to produce a short video about why they care about climate change and what they are doing about it. Winning videos will be highlighted on the EPA website and the top 3 entries will receive cool prizes like a solar charging backpack. The first 100 contestants to enter will also receive a year s subscription to National Geo- graphic Kids Magazine. The deadline for submissions is March 10. Visit the challenge website at climatestudents/contest.html

lettuce Start seed in the classroom: start transplants of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant March Vegetables Direct seed into the garden: snap beans, Swiss chard, radish, lettuce, collard greens,

2 Page 2 Veggie Bytes What s Growing! February Vegetables Direct seed into the garden: beets, turnips, mustard, parsley, radishes, lettuce, snap beans, and Irish potatoes Transplant into the garden: broccoli, cauli lower, cabbage, lettuce Start seed in the classroom: start transplants of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant March Vegetables Direct seed into the garden: snap beans, Swiss chard, radish, lettuce, collard greens, mustards, and turnips Transplant into the garden: tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants Start seed in the classroom: start cucumber transplants, plant after last frost April Vegetables Direct seed into the garden: snap beans, butter beans, radish, collards, cucumbers Transplant into the garden: sweet potato slips, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant Play Dough Recipe 2 cups flour 1 cup salt 2 cups water 2TBL oil 4tsp cream of tartar Food coloring Mix all ingredients together minus the food coloring. Cook over medium heat in a sauce pan stirring constantly until a soft ball forms. Add the food coloring and mix well. Allow to cool on a piece of foil. Store in a Tupperware container. It will take approximately 15 minutes of cooking for the soft ball stage to form. Make several batches so that the students have yellow, green, red and brown or black to work with. Ladybeetles continued... Ahead of time make homemade play dough for the hands-on portion of this activity. A super easy recipe is below. Make several batches in these colors. Red, Black or a Dark Brown (the black color is difficult to achieve), Yellow, and Green. Have students create each stage of the ladybeetles life cycle using the play- dough. A small pinch of each color is sufficient for each student. The stages should be placed on the circle diagram on the worksheet in this newsletter. Make sure students understand that lifecycles are CYCLES Insects do not jump randomly from one stage to another Students should draw arrows from one stage to the next and label the stages, egg, larvae, pupa and adult After the models are made, complete worksheet 2 with the students. This will really allow them to express their creativity! Ladybeetles undergo complete metamorphosis. This figure is provided by EnchantedLearning.com

3 Volume 5, Issue 1 Page 3

4 Page 4 Veggie Bytes Ladybeetles Continued Use this worksheet after students build their play dough ladybeetle lifecycle models. Allow students to really use their imagination! Cool Lady Beetle Facts 1. Ladybeetles can beat their wings 85 times per second when they fly! 2. An adult ladybeetle can eat up to 75 aphids per day! But that s not all they eat. Ladybeetles find fruit flies, thrips, mites and other small soft bodied insects very delicious! 3. There are 5,000 types of ladybeetles in the world. They don t always look the same. Some are black, some are yellow and some have stripes! 4. A ladybeetle s brilliant colors signal to other animals that they are not good to eat! 5. If a ladybeetle feels threatened it may release stinky smells from its knees to attempt to scare predators away! Design a ladybeetle to be the ultimate insect eater below! Be prepared to tell the group why your ladybeetle is better suited for survival than the average red and black spotted beetle!

Volume 5, Issue 1 Page 5 It s Not Too Late to Celebrate Arbor Day! Arbor Day is usually celebrated the third Friday of January in Louisiana.

However, trees adapt best to new surroundings when planted during cooler weather.

Be prepared to water daily for at least two weeks to help roots establish. There are all kinds of edible trees!

ELAPP MATSSUA REAP WHAMAY IGF NACPE VNEAL NOGREA MLOEN MQTUUKA IELM WWAAPP After you plant a tree, keep track of its growth.

What you ll need: Tape measure Ball of Twine Calculator Yardstick Sunny Day The circumference is always measured at breast height or at 4.

Mark the spot in the twine by pinching the end and use your tape measure to record the length of the twine.

Or if you have calipers these can measure the diameter too! The height of the tree is a little more difficult especially as it grows taller and taller!

5 Volume 5, Issue 1 Page 5 It s Not Too Late to Celebrate Arbor Day! Arbor Day is usually celebrated the third Friday of January in Louisiana. Just because we missed it doesn t mean trees can t still be planted and celebrated anytime during the year. However, trees adapt best to new surroundings when planted during cooler weather. Planting this February is best but if you have to wait until March or April be sure to plant trees that were previously grown in containers. Be prepared to water daily for at least two weeks to help roots establish. There are all kinds of edible trees! Unscramble the words below to discover edible trees that grow well in Louisiana. ELAPP MATSSUA REAP WHAMAY IGF NACPE VNEAL NOGREA MLOEN MQTUUKA IELM WWAAPP After you plant a tree, keep track of its growth. Most arborists and scientists take 3 annual measurements when recording a trees growth including the circumference, diameter and height. What you ll need: Tape measure Ball of Twine Calculator Yardstick Sunny Day The circumference is always measured at breast height or at 4.5ft above ground level on the uphill side. Use your tape measure to accurately measure 4.5ft from ground level. Next wrap the twine around the trunk of the tree once. Mark the spot in the twine by pinching the end and use your tape measure to record the length of the twine. The diameter of the tree is the distance across (straight through) the trunk. Don t cut your tree in half! Simply divide the circumference by pi (3.14). Or if you have calipers these can measure the diameter too! The height of the tree is a little more difficult especially as it grows taller and taller! This is where a sunny day comes in handy. First hold your yardstick perpendicular to the ground. Using your tape measure find the length of the yardsticks shadow. Write down this ratio. Next, measure the length of the tree s shadow with your tape measure. Write down that measurement. Last apply the yardstick ratio to the tree. For example if the yard sticks shadow was 2ft then that is a 3ft:2ft ratio. If the trees shadow measured 8ft then we would multiply 3ft (the length of the yardstick) by 8ft (the length of the trees shadow) and divide it by 2ft ( the length of the yardsticks shadow) which would give us a 12 foot tall tree. Look at it this way and solve for X. {3/2 = x/8}. Celebrate your trees birthday each year by measuring its annual growth!

LSU AgCenter Growing Gardens! Kathryn Kiki Fontenot, PhD 155 JC Miller Hall Baton Rouge, LA 70803 William B.

Agriculture Check Out Our Latest School Garden Publication! Are you having trouble identifying insects in your garden?

com/ en/communications/ publications/ Publications+Catalog/ Lawn+and+Garden/School- Gardens/ControllingA-Guide-to --Insects-in-the-School- Garden.

6 LSU AgCenter Growing Gardens! Kathryn Kiki Fontenot, PhD 155 JC Miller Hall Baton Rouge, LA William B. Richardson, LSU Vice President for Agriculture Louisiana State University Agricultural Center Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service LSU College of Agriculture Check Out Our Latest School Garden Publication! Are you having trouble identifying insects in your garden? Use this student friendly publication to figure out what is crawling in the garden! Lots of fun activities for teachers and students!!!! en/communications/ publications/ Publications+Catalog/ Lawn+and+Garden/School- Gardens/ControllingA-Guide-to --Insects-in-the-School- Garden.htm The LSU AgCenter is a statewide campus of the LSU System and provides equal opportunities in programs and employment. Visit us on the Web! Sunflowers growing at Burden. Sunflowers come in all heights. Try Teddy bear for shorter stalks and Mammoth for taller stalks. Book Review Starting in mid-february students can plant sunflower seeds in the classroom. Getting an early start will ensure students see the flowers before school lets out for the summer. If you decide to wait to direct seed sunflowers in the garden wait until after March 15 th in south Louisiana and April 1 in North Louisiana. Most sunflowers will start to bloom days after planting. But the fun is in eating the seed! Plant early so your class can see the entire lifecycle! Before planting, read How Does it Grow? Seed to Sunflower by Ian Smith and published by Teacher Created Resources. ISBN This book is a quick read for younger audiences (ages 5-7) and explains and illustrates step by step how sunflowers grow. The book has a great glossary with definition of excellent science vocabulary words and suggestions for class discussions after reading the story.

Veggie Bytes. Greauxing Gumbo. Inside this Issue. Spring Edition

Veggie Bytes. Greauxing Gumbo. Inside this Issue. Spring Edition Veggie Bytes Spring Edition Feb April 2018 Volume 9, Issue 1 Inside this Issue What s Growing Gumbo Contin. Lee Road Garden 2 2 3 Recipe 4 Game 5 Book Review 6 Greauxing Gumbo Pre-K through 1st grade students