At Tarneit North Kindergarten, we introduced our 2 new additions to the room, our stick insects! You can see from the pictures the children were very excited and very inquisitive!

We have 2 teenage female spiny leaf stick insects, yet to be named! Orange group children were encouraged to ask lots of questions about our 2 new friends, here are some of the questions and answers.

• What do they eat – green leaves, in particular gum leaf, eucalyptus
• Can they fly – no only the males grow wings (this is why we chose females)
• Can they have babies – yes they can leg eggs and have babies
• What do they drink – water sprayed on the leaves
• Can i hold them – yes you sure can, ask a teacher to help you get them out of the tank

We also talked about their unique look and discussed how they can camouflage with the tree branches. How best to look after them – clean up their poo, spray them and the leaves with water twice a day, change their leaves once a week.

Lastly we discussed Names! – Navy group are going to pick one name and Orange group the other.

Children are encouraged to come up with some names and we will have a vote, at the moment there is only one name in the running, ‘Orangey’.