ROMKids Show: The One With The Creepy Crawlies

Tune in every Tuesday at 2 pm on Instagram Live @ROMtoronto as ROM Kids Coordinator and Camp Director Kiron Mukherjee combines his passion for children’s education with storytelling to bring to life science, history and art for you and your loved ones in the comfort of your own home. Kiron will share activities, easy at-home crafts, behind the scenes anecdotes and fun facts—all connected to the ROM collections.

This time on the ROMKids Show we learn about those creepy crawlies that haunt the corners of balconies and undusted hallways—arachnids and insects! But are spiders and bugs really that terrifying, and how do they benefit the rest of the world? Entomologist  Antonia Guidotti joins us to answer these questions! Then we’ll make our own oil pastel and watercolour art to remind us that insects aren’t that scary after all!

• Paper (cardstock is best)
• White oil pastel
• Brush and watercolour paint

1. With your white oil pastel, draw the lines of a spider web, starting at the center, and moving outwards to the edge of your paper.

2. Next, take your watercolours, and paint over the webs using a rainbow of colours. The white oil pastel will resist the watercolours, meaning that the webs will continue to stand out against the paint. Now you have a colourful web to remind you that spiders aren’t that scary after all. Can you make your own spider to add to your web?

As the ROMKids Coordinator & Camp Director, Kiron is the public face of the Royal Ontario Museum’s family and children’s programs. Kiron started volunteering at the ROM at age 14 and has never looked back. Though he majored in history at York University, Kiron also considers his early years as a ROMKids camper to be a highly formative part of his education. Now, he strives to provide engaging and educational kids’ programming so that future generations can look back on their ROM experiences as fondly as he has.