Modesto preschoolers ‘bug out’ for Earth Day

Abdomen. Thorax. Antennae. Environment. Habitat.

Big words for little mouths and young minds to wrap themselves around.

But that was some of the vocabulary toddlers and preschoolers were learning at Merryhill Preschool on Roseburg Avenue on Wednesday, which was Earth Day.

The kids have been studying beneficial bugs, such as butterflies and ladybugs, and they celebrated Earth Day by making paper-plate sunflowers, wearing recycling-themed hats adorned with colorful candy-wrapper litter they picked up, being read to about water conservation (Turn off the faucet when brushing your teeth!) and releasing about 1,000 ladybugs into the school garden.

“If you hold a ladybug upside down in your hand, you can see its head, thorax and abdomen,” science teacher Marilyn Rownd told a group of 21/2- to 5-year-olds. She even gave them a bit of homework – a ladybug coloring sheet to return. “If you can list all the body parts – the antennas, eyes, head, thorax and abdomen – I’ll give you a reward.”

Rownd had the same talk – body parts, life cycle, habitat, how ladybugs are “good predators” that protect plants by eating aphids – with toddlers at the school, too. She realizes the vocabulary and lessons likely won’t stick at that age, but also knows that hearing about such things now will ring a bell with kids when they learn about them again later.

Outside, while some of the Merryhill kids – several wearing ladybug red and/or black – were with Rownd to release ladybugs, others were with teacher Roxanne Akoyani to get other Earth Day lessons. She talked with them about cutting back on air pollution and recycling. “Sometimes if we live close to school, we can walk to school, or we could take our bike or the bus,” she told them. “We don’t always have to drive to school.”

Akoyani asked whose families recycle bottles and cans at home. Arms shot up, and to a chorus of “me, me, me,” she said, “When it gets full wherever you save, you guys can take it in, and they smash it, they melt it and they can make shoelaces, they can make backpacks, out of everything we recycle.”

This story was originally published April 22, 2015 at 8:02 PM with the headline "Modesto preschoolers ‘bug out’ for Earth Day."