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We also keep an aquarium on the table with a screen lid for those live specimens we may want to observe. (One time we put a praying mantis cocoon in it and a few days later the aquarium was crawling with hundreds of tiny white mantises! -- so cool!).
But usually everything goes in it (dead, alive, pieces, parts, etc.) - nests blown from the trees, feathers, rocks, bark, leaves, old cocoons (used but good), dead insects, egg shells, butterfly wings, etc. You get the picture.
What to do with all of these goodies? It's become a tradition that every September the boys put together their Insect/Nature Collection as one of their first school projects. I give them a piece of white foam core (18x24) and they arrange their collection in groups. The wasps to next to the paper wasp nest (retrieved from under the back door steps), all the winged insects go together, eggshells next to the nest, etc.
Sometimes I pin the specimens down with straight pins or the little ones just glue them down. (I know some entomologists are just cringing, but hey, give me credit for just touching these things!)
The boys write up lables and place them below each specimen. I like to use folder labels.
They title the collections as their own: "Tom's Nature Collection 2001."
I highly recommend saving and observing all the wonders they pick up. You could use a shelf or just a box on the garage floor as your "nature table."
Get outside and prepare for the invasion of the bugs!
Liz Forstmeier
Bellefonte
