Merryhill Preschool students celebrate Earth Day with live ladybug release

There were feathers and twigs and ladybugs galore.

April 22 was a day filled with wonder for youngsters at Merryhill Preschool, 10050 Alta Drive. The school held an Earth Day program with plenty of activities to coincide with its reduce, recycle, reuse program.

Throughout the week, the children made bird feeders, using cookie cutters to craft them into various shapes. They also created “earth tubes” (toilet paper roll tubes filled with planting soil and zinnia seeds); painted flowers using recycled soda bottles; washed feathers with Dawn dish soap to imitate the detergent’s commercials on saving ocean animals affected by oil spills; and colored sun visors with red markers and glued-on black dots to emulate ladybugs.

The last one was important as the big thrill of the day was releasing live ladybugs.

The bugs were in small containers and crawled out on the children’s hands when the top came off.

“They’re tickle-ly,” one child exclaimed in delight.

Another flinched. “It flew away,” she said, her eyes following it until her attention was drawn back to another bug that had crawled out of the container.

Not all of the action was outdoors. The whole week had included activities, with stories such as “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” read, and the children making leaves and covering them with caterpillars made of pom-poms.

Likewise, the book “The Tiny Seed” saw them learning about the life cycle of flowers. They used stencils tocut out their flowers and painted them.

India Byth, 4, made a rain forest out of Play-Doh and stuck twigs in it. She said the activities were fun “and now I’m going to make an animal. … My favorite animal is a tree monkey.”

She didn’t have a tree monkey at home, only a cat, Izzy, she said, named after a character from the cartoon show “Jake and the Never Land Pirates.”

Alejandra Hoyos was there as a parent helper. Her son, Julian, 4, has been coming to Merryhill since he was 2.

“I like that it’s like family here,” she said. “The teachers, they’re all experienced, and you can tell how much they love what they’re doing.”

Teacher Debbie Tanaka said it was important that the children learn about the Earth and the environment “so they can keep the Earth clean and build a foundation (of respecting it) for their future.”

It wasn’t just the children who appreciated the special project.

“This is a lot of fun,” said principal Lisa Fitzgerald . “We really enjoy it because I think children have gotten in the realm of ABCs and one, two, three, not all the things that happen outside of their four walls. So, we want to teach them about preserving the Earth, water pollution, helping (do our part) in those things and how we can turn regular, everyday items into fun toys. They don’t have to be something bought at a store and (they) have just as much fun.”

In the past, the preschool has done similar programming such as on water pollution and lessons from the Arctic.

Visit merryhillschool.com or call 877-959-3743.

To reach Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan, email jhogan@viewnews.com or call 702-387-2949.