Bug Month Online
The Randall Museum brought you Bug Month throughout May 2020.
Week #1: Bees
Honey bees live in colonies. They can not survive alone. All their lives, they keep very busy working together for the success of their hive. Have you ever heard the expression,” Busy as a bee?” You are about to learn why people use that expression.
Bees have many very important jobs during their life. As they age they move on to new jobs and younger bees take over doing their old job.
Game Downloads
Game Tips
Adapt them to your house, your family and what works for you. If you have one child, both of you be the bees.
Craft Downloads
Activity Downloads
A short guide on helping encourage curiosity about bugs!
Videos
Installing the Hive
The Waggle Dance
Bee Crafts – Crown Making
Making a Bee Costume
Resources
- Here’s an excellent video from the Smithsonian about honeybees and the waggle dance
- Learn how to face paint a bee Adorable Bumble Bee Face Painting
- Support a local bookstore: Our friends at Folio Books in San Francisco put together a Books List for Bug Month
- Listen to the music Flight of the Bumblebee played with different instruments
- Here is a funny one: Trombone Meets the Bumblebee
- This one has dueling pianos: Two pianos
- Young Cellist
- Fast and Furious
Week #2: Backyard Bugs
We’re highlighting Backyard Bugs this week. Bugs are all around us. You can find lots of insects without going very far from home. Simply step outside and look closely around your home or garden. Great places to find bugs are…
- Under fallen logs or piled wood or stones
- Near trees and tree stumps
- Check windows
- Look on flowers
- Lift up leaves of plants
- A backyard pond, or a wet area
- Believe it or not – on your car bumper and windshield
- Check outdoor lights at night
- Underneath planter boxes or flower pots
Backyard Bug Games Downloads
Insects can be found just about anywhere, even in your yard or on your deck. Try turning over rocks, or looking under some leaves for pill bugs, and watch for butterflies and bees on flowers. You can even set up a small shallow container with a bit of ripe fruit and check back later.
We’re calling all creatures you might find “BUGS” but some may be insects, spiders, or even crustaceans. The differences are all in their body parts and their mouth types. Insects have 6 legs and 3 body segments. Find out more about all of them this week in Backyard Bugs.
Backyard Bug Craft Downloads
Backyard Bug Activity Downloads
A short guide on helping encourage curiosity about bugs!
Backyard Bug Videos
Discover Pond Insects
A guide to exploring water bugs with Zach plus a PDF to Pond Pack
Backyard Bugging
A quick How To guide for kids with animal curator Zach
Ladybug Release in the Garden
Did you know that ladybugs are garden helpers? They munch on pests that hurt your plants
How to Make Butterfly Wings
Learn a simple way to craft your own costumes with Romina
Storytime Are you an Ant?
A short storytime video with Sarah
Sneak a peek at the Randall’s Butterfly collection
A Small Sample of Randall’s Extensive Mounted Butterfly Collection
Backyard Bug Resources
- Download a Randall Museum Insect Poster
- Learn how to face paint a ladybug, grasshopper or a spider – Quick video of Face Painting ideas from Cirque du Soleil
- Download a PDF of Butterflies of San Francisco compiled by Liam O’Brian for Nature in the City. Use this guide to learn the names of the butterflies you see in your garden or local park.
- Watch how to keep mosquitos out of your backyard. SFDPH offers a video resource to learn how to keep mosquitos out of your backyard
- Easy Origami Butterfly – watch a five minute craft tutorial
- Support a local bookstore: Our friends at Folio Books in San Francisco put together a Book List for Bug Month
- Sing along to a famous songs about ants – Ants Go Marching One by One – YouTube animated song
- Listen to a classic song as Doris Day sings High Hopes from 1964 on YouTube
- Watch the SF Public Library Storytime Video Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal
- Download ‘Pond Pack’ – A PDF of extra materials to go with the video Discover Pond Insects. Our friends from across the Pond like to muck about in ponds too. Note – this is a 24 page classroom resource from Holland Park Ecology Centre in London that can be adapted for home use.
Backyard Bug Challenges – Social Media
See how many different bugs you can find in your backyard.
Take pictures and send them to us – we want to see your creativity! #RandallBugBrigade.
Week #3: Amazing Insects
This week our RANDALL MUSEUM BUG MONTH is focusing on some of the amazing things about insects that awe us! Did you know insects are also amazing athletes? Did you know that there are plants that eat insects?? We will also share some of the amazing insects we have right here at the Randall. Join in the Bug Olympics and see how you match up to a grasshopper, or a spider or even a roach!!!
Amazing Insect Activities:
- You can replicate an Olympic Coliseum wherever you are. You just need an indoor or outdoor space where you can run, jump and move.
- Print and use our official Bug Olympics Score Sheet or make your own.
- It’s more fun when everyone plays! If possible, have everyone present, children and adults, participate in the Bug Olympics.
- Read each event through before you start so you understand how to compete. Adapt and modify to the needs of your family.
See how you compete with insects by joining the
BUG OLYMPICS
If they were the same size, bugs could jump higher, and run faster than most animals on earth!
Amazing Insect Videos
Carnivorous Plants Eating Insects
Meet a Millipede
Patrick Schlemmer of the SF Zoo talks about millipedes
Walking Sticks with Zach
Watch these exotic insects hide in plain sight
Death Feigning Beetles
Discover new insects at the Randall
Ferocious Water Bugs with Nancy
Learn about these “toe-biters”
South American Meal Worm Races
Get ready, Get set, Go!
How Ladybugs Fold their Wings
From National Geographic
Phasmids
Explore giant Australian Walking sticks with Michael Lim from the SF Zoo
Fun Facts
There are over 700 species of carnivorous plants in the world
Some queen ants have millions of babies
Dragonflies have been around for over 300 million years
Stick Insects are the World’s Longest Insects!
The Chan’s Megastick measures an incredible 22 inches with legs extended, and has a body length of 14 inches
Amazing Insect Challenges – Social Media
HAVE A BUG OLYMPIC AWARD CEREMONY!
Everyone who competes in the Bug Olympics can get a gold medal. If you take a photo or video of your Bug Olympics, we would love to see them! You can post them on instagram and tag us @RandallMuseum and use #RandallBugBrigade, or email them to us at info@randallmuseum.org
Take pictures and send them to us – we want to see your creativity! #RandallBugBrigade.
A hearty thanks to some of our friends and partners for sharing videos about their amazing insects too! Check out videos from our partners at the San Francisco Zoo Insect department. Curator Patrick Schlemmer and his staff introduce us to some exotic insects – millipedes and leaf bugs. Our partners from the Bay Area Carnivorous Plant Society shared some cool video showing how plants eat insects!! Photo credits to Stephen Davis and Cara Ching.
Week #4: Spiders and Scorpions… Oh My!
Did you know that spiders are one of the best indicators of a healthy garden? There are so many kinds of spiders in the world, over 45,000 known species!
Scorpions are closely related to spiders. Scorpions are burrowing bugs – they need soil to live. Did you know that there are nearly 2,000 different species of scorpions?
Spider and Scorpion
Crafts
Spider and Scorpion Activities
Spider and Scorpion Resources
- Sesame Street Video: Jim Parsons: Arachnids
- Video: blue tarantula walking on a hand
- Full 3-Hour Audiobook: Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
- More great resources about Scorpions from National Geographic
- The Tarantella Napoletana – Also known as the “Dance of the Spider.” This traditional group of folk dances is characterized by quick steps and a lively upbeat tempo and usually accompanied by tambourines. The name comes from the Italian word for Tarantula.
- Watch the The Tarantella Napoletana
- Listen to the famous music of the Tarantella Napoletana on mandolin – Italian Mandolin music by maestro Antonio Calsolaro
Videos
Meet a Tarantula
Patrick Schlemmer / SF Zoo talks tarantulas
Meet a Scorpion
Rosy the Tarantula
Our Chilean Rose-Haired Tarantula
Costa Rican Wood Roach Races
Walking Stick Races
Spider and Scorpion Challenges – Social Media
Creepiest Crawliest Insect Videos challenge
You may have heard that Museums have challenged each other to show their creepiest object #CreepiestObject.
We challenge you to kick over a rock and get the Creepiest Crawling Insect video you can! # CreepiestCrawlingInsect
Bug lovers – become an official member of the Randall Bug Brigade!
Send us a video or photo that we can use in our social media or other Randall Museum publicity showing that you participated in any one of the activities from Bug Month Online at the Randall Museum.
Here’s what you do:
- Take a photo or video of your participation in any activity, craft or game from Bug Month Online
- Post YOUR bug photos or videos on Instagram or Facebook and tag us @RandallMuseum and use #RandallBugBrigade, OR email them to us at info@randallmuseum.org
- Celebrate your achievements by Downloading your Bug Brigade Certificate and filling in your name
Join the #RandallBugBrigade and post your photos and crafts on our social media pages. Stay tuned for more fun, including the Roach Run and the Bug Olympics!
