Halloween is over, so what now?

Wondering what to do with those leftover Jack-O-Lanterns? Now's the perfect time to go back and look at our fun lesson on pumpkin decomposition! 'Cause what's not to love about getting a useful lesson out of something you were probably just going to throw away anyhow?

And, I recently found two really cool books to go right along with that lesson on decomposition. Both talk about the plan life cycle in fun, easy-to-understand ways. In fact, we spent last week sharing those lessons with preschoolers, who loved the stories and illustrations (not to mention they ooey, gooey, slimey disembowelment of the pumpkins)!

The first book is Pumpkin Jack, which is both written and illustrated by Will Hubbell. I especially love this book for this activity because it starts the life cycle off with the Jack-O-Lantern phase of the pumpkin and has great illustrations of the slimey, rotten phase of the pumpkin. Then the seeds start to grow in the spring and the little boy ends of with another Jack-O-Lantern. This is and especially great story to share if you have kids who are reluctant to get rid of their carving masterpieces.

I also love It's Pumpkin Time! by Zoe Hall and illustrated by Shari Halpern. I especially love the illustrations, which definitely remind me of some of my favorite Eric Carle books. This book follows the adventures of siblings who plant and care for their own pumpkins. Especially helpful are the illustrations of the life cycle at the end of the story. I copied these drawings, cut and laminated them into smaller pieces and used them in a sequencing activity...which worked really well.

Halloween may be over, but those pumpkins are still good for something!

Back to School: Discover Dairy

August means it's time to head back to school. Teachers are scurrying to get their classrooms back in order. Moms are scurrying to finish their back to school shopping. And kids are scurrying to scrape up the last bits of enjoyment they can from summer. In honor of this oh-so-busy time of year, we're spending August highlighting some great educational resources to help you get ready  for the new school year.

Now back when I was in school, math was math and reading was reading and the two never seemed to mix. But educators today seem to be much more organized and creative when it comes to creating meaningful and memorable lessons that cut across traditional subject boundaries.

Such is the case with the new (and free) Discover Dairy curriculum with four new comprehensive designed specifically for middle school students. This hands-on program teaches students where their milk comes from and how dairy farmers contribute to our world all while applying science concepts to real-life situations. But it's not "just" science: the Discover Dairy program (which includes videos, reading guides and lab-based instruction) also meets educational science standards in math, science and reading. The curriculum was developed as a joint initiative of the Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion Program, the Center for Dairy Excellence and the Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association and is funded by the Dairy Checkoff program.

These new lessons build on the existing Discover Dairy lessons that were launched in 2008 and designed for upper elementary students. Since it's launch, the series has been used in more that 300 Pennsylvania classrooms and more than 15 states. The Discover Dairy website also draws about 1,000 visitors each month and includes farm tour resources for farmers and interactive games for kids, such as Operation Dairy where kids put on their detective hats and join Cammie the Cow in discovering how cows are cared for on today's dairy farms.

Five different lessons are available for upper elementary students. Each lesson features multi-leveled activities to address different cognitive levels. Topics include:

• Animal Health
• Milk Safety
• Environment
• Community
• Nutrition

Middle school educators can use the four new lessons, each of which includes two lab activities, for students on:

• Animal Health
• Milk Safety & Quality
• Dairy's Role in the Environment
• Dairy's Role in the Community

So as you gear up to head back to school, don't forget: dairy and milk are not just for lunch time! They make great lessons, too. Interested in learning more about dairy? Be sure to check out these great dairy blogs to learn more about dairy production! 

And don't forget, teachers: Make sure your school is taking advantages of the resources available through the NFL's Fuel Up to Play 60 in-school initiative program to fight childhood obesity!

Homeschool? Check out these fun ways to make sure your kids are getting their "Three a Day!"

Bringing buggy books to life

One of the things we love to do is get kids excited about all kinds of science. And one sure-fire hit with kids is bugs. Love 'em or hate 'em (and most kids are in the love category....way more than the adults), insects and their relatives are sure to get a reaction from almost anyone.

Here at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center's Wooster campus, we are blessed with a fun, fabulous and FREE Bug Zoo. If you've never been, it's a treat. All kinds of creepy-crawlies to learn about, touch and enjoy...plus some fabulously huge arthropod props mounted to the wall our Bug Zoo caretaker Miss Judy managed to track down. It's awesome.

But obviously, not everyone is blessed to have such a resource in their home or classroom (as many of you are thinking, "Thank goodness!"). So books become a great resource for teaching kids about the science of insects. Bonus? It also helps kids get excited about reading, and bug books can be really fun non-fiction books for kids to enjoy.

One service we offer is making trips to schools who are unable to visit our campus in person because of financial or distance issues, either through our OARDC on the Road program or through our Guest Reader program. We love to read! One of our favorite books to take is My Book of Bugs. What makes it fun is that the book is only one small part of our magic box:

In addition to the book, which we definitely enjoy reading with the kids, we've also scoured convenience store bargains and our insect archive collection (not to mention our native environment: the fabulous outdoors). To find examples of the insects discussed in My Book of Bugs.

For example:

Many of these much larger than life insect models (all of which are discussed in the book) can be readily found at your local dollar or convenience store/ In fact, Target has a fabulous little collection in their dollar bins this spring, including models like these, the spongy-capsules that "grow" into insects in water and some basic bug-hunting supplies. These are great, especially if you are leery of real-life insects or you have some kids that aren't sure about the whole bug thing. The key is, the kids get their cues from you, the adult. If you are freaked out by the real-life insects, they will be, too. If you act like they are cool (even if that's not what you're really thinking), the kids will, too.

We add to that some mounted species. This is excellent for kids, because in our experience kids tend to have a lot of difficulty distinguishing the difference between "real" and "dead." I like to say these bugs are "real dead." Did you think it was funny? The kids don't normally laugh either....it's OK. For example, we bring along this mounted Atlas Moth:

And finally, what really makes this a fund experience for the kids is bringing along some real-life critters. You can find some of these locally on your own, like these crickets:

They're just super-excited to be out and about on classroom visits. Each day they spend outside the Bug Zoo is one less day they have to worry about Miss Judy feeding them to the bigger buggies. Oops! I hope they didn't hear that!

And finally, we do have in our arsenal a couple of things the average parent or teacher is not going to be able to readily put their hands on:

Recognize them? Yep, these are Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches...the very same kind made famous on Fear Factor when people would lay with them or even eat them. None of that goes on during my watch.....ick.

Besides, we have other programs during the year for eating bugs.....

But we'll save the deatils of A Bug's World for another post another time...