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Page Last Updated:
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
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Home>Council Services>Environment>Gardens for Wildlife (G4W)>KinderGardens for Wildlife>>Milestones>Minibeast Mulch
Why?
By providing a deep mulch of leaves, bark, twigs, flowers and seed pods around the base of tall trees and as part of garden beds in the playground, you can supply habitat for a large variety of insects that in turn will attract insect eaters such as birds, frogs, skinks and lizards.
Insects form part of the diet for all native birds, skinks and lizards, so there would be no need to use potentially harmful poisons to eradicate pest insects. Even the smallest honeyeaters eagerly devour many smaller insects (up to 200 insects a day) in the garden while the larger wattlebirds prefer to feed on larger creatures such as beetles, moths and cicadas. Skinks and lizards have voracious appetites for snails, slugs, moths, beetles and flies.
Mulch further benefits garden plants as it breaks down and recycles nutrients to the soil, minimises both moisture and temperature loss at the soil surface and suppresses weed growth.
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| Criteria |
 | Layers of deep mulch made up of leaves, bark, twigs, flowers, seed pods around the base of tall trees and as part of garden beds | | Provision of food (nectar and pollen) plants for insects eg: eucalyptus, brachyschomes, ti-trees, westringias | | Provision of shelter and homes for insects eg: hollow stems, deep narrow Holes in logs | | Worm farm | | Compost bin
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| Resource Kit Ingredients | |
Teacher's Resources
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| Environmental experiences:
- Shake a branch onto a white cloth/pillowslip, and investigate with a magnifying glass. Classify how many different types of minibeasts are found. Some children may prefer to use small gardening gloves for these activities. Make sure the children wash their hands thoroughly afterwards.
- Bug Hunt information: remember to explain to children to use the brush in the discovery pack to gently brush the minibeast into the container, rather than picking them up. Encourage children to leave habitats exactly as they have found them.
- Find a rotting log: discover how many different types of creatures live under, on or inside the log
- Odd one out game: provide children with egg cartons and ask them to collect five similar things and a sixth one that is different. It is up to the children to decide what the similarities and differences should be, and for others to decide which item is the odd one out. For example, five different leaves and one empty snail shell. | | Information Card: Minibeasts (ie: invertabrates) are necessary to the ‘well being of our natural communities’. Many species pollinate the flowers of plants or serve as a food source for other animals. Some recycle nutrients from decaying plant or animal matter while others aerate the soil through their burrowing activity. | | Discussion: Why minibeasts are helpful in your playground | | Picture Storybooks suggestions | | Songs/songcards with illustrations | | Poetry/rhymes | | Excursions eg: Wilson Botanic Park, Berwick (telephone: (03) 9707 5818) have a minibeast early years program available; also ponding activities for aquatic minibeasts also available.
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| Game: The Grouchy Ladybird game or The very quiet cricket | | Non-fiction reference books including: ‘Leaf Litter’ is an excellent resource for understanding the lifecycle and importance of minibeasts; ‘Spinning a Web’ big book; ‘Creepy Crawly’ Activity Book | | Puzzles: Four Insect tray puzzles (Fly, Bee, butterfly, cicada) | | Investigation activity: Insect x-ray and picture set | | Finger puppet: eg; preying mantis finger puppet; spider finger puppet | | Large puppet: eg; Ladybird hand puppet | | ‘Discovery Pack’ including binoculars, magnifying glasses, brush, scavenger hunt laminated sheet, clipboard, textas, journal | | Social story: What to do if you find a spider in your playground? | | CD of photo’s, pictures, posters to identify different minibeast species eg: CSIRO Australian Insect poster for identification
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Click on images below for a larger view.
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