A Dragonfly

 Did you ever hold a dragonfly?  Well I never held one that was alive.  We usually see them flying around and dancing in the wind, but I found this little guy at my parent's house.  I am not sure how or why he died but it was too perfect not to share with our class.  Last week a friend from another class brought some butterflies that were deceased but had beautifully colored wings.  Both presented us with a wonderful opportunity to study nature.  These insects are so delicate but we had a chance to look at them with a magnifying glass and touch their paper thin wings. It is fun to really explore something like this close up and get to touch it with our very own hands.  Unfortunately, it also opened a huge discussion about death and why things die.  This is one of those uncomfortable topics that comes up during our year but I always answer by saying that all things go to heaven and sometimes we don't know why.  I am not sure what the class finally decided about these insects but they gave many ideas about what caused their death.. my personal favorite was that they just "flew to close to the sun and touched it.  They got to hot and died."  Children can be so curious and it can lead to many wonderful conversations.  If you get a minute ask your child about these special guests in our classroom.  I am sure that it will be very different.  Their minds are always at work trying to figure things out and make sense of the world around them.

(PS - The best part about this whole thing was actually getting to hold a bug in our hand and not being afraid to touch it.  Everybody was really brave!!!)