Preschoolers at EverWonder Children’s Museum learned about one of the oldest species on the planet — the dragonfly — during an interactive Story Lab on Tuesday, May 7.

Pam Fagan, a volunteer, former elementary school teacher, and dragonfly enthusiast, led the program while wearing her dragonfly pendant necklace and earrings.

At the start of the lesson, she asked what everyone knew about dragonflies, to which one boy called out “They suck your blood!”

Ms Fagan explained that dragonflies eat bugs like mosquitoes and flies but are gentle to humans and do not drink people’s blood.

She read the book Dragonflies by Rebecca Rissman and taught how the kind, colorful creatures have tiny antennas, compound eyes, four wings, six legs, and can even fly backwards.

By looking through specially designed glasses and kaleidoscopes, the children in the class were able to see how dragonflies view the world with compound eyes, compared to their own vision.

For the final activity, Ms Fagan helped participants assemble their own paper dragonfly and had them practice flying their creations around the room.

EverWonder Children’s Museum’s next Story Lab is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, May 14, from 10:30 to 11:30 am, at 31 Pecks Lane. For more information, call 203-364-4009 or visit everwondermuseum.org.