Pill Bug Observations

Shieldy is on the tip of the stick.

This is Shieldy, Early Bird's roly poly pet for an hour. His name is "Shield-y" because he has an armored body. Early Bird came up with the name. He was actually trying to "hug" Shieldy by holding him up to his cheek, so I decided maybe we should make Shieldy a habitat that Early Bird could hold. This made him very observable, so we decided to do an impromptu nature lesson. (I love homeschooling!)





We made observations, named the category of the creature, used tools, and recorded information, just like we learned last summer when we went through Learning to Be a Scientist. After making observations and talking about pill bugs I had Early Bird draw a picture of Shieldy. We had a difficult time counting his legs, so we got the Pill Bug/Roly Poly card from the Insects and small critters full color flash cards that I found last year at Target in the $1 aisle. We learned that pill bugs are isopods, have 7 pairs of legs, 2 pairs of antennae, and have gills! We read about their habitat and diet and we tried to replicate the ideal home for Shieldy in the glass jar. This was a good time to review with Early Bird that animals need food, water, and air to live.

"This is a good home for Shieldy."

Then, once we had learned what we could, we released Shieldy back into "the wild" aka our backyard. We used the information we had learned to try to put him back where he would be most happy.

For more fun there is a Roly Poly game on PBSKids.org in the Sid the Science Kid area.

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