About 80 preschoolers squealed as they huddled in the grass picking up ladybugs and watching the insects crawl up their arms and legs during an Earth Day event at Evergreen Academy in Kirkland Friday morning.

School staff, students, parents and media gathered for the event, as 4,500 ladybugs were released into the schoolyard environment to improve vegetation health. Students wore festive Earth Day t-shirts created by Evergreen Academy’s Parent Teacher Organization (PTO).

Principal Carrie Stull cut open several packets of ladybugs and shook the insects out as preschoolers scampered into the grass.

“They tickle,” laughed 4-year-old Nermin Galesic.

Another girl picked up a ladybug from the grass and carried it to a raised garden bed.

“I’m bringing the ladybugs back to their home,” she said.

Stull said staff came up with the idea from one of Evergreen Academy’s sister schools in another state. The Kirkland campus opened last January.

“We thought it was a great idea,” she said. Leading up to the Earth Day event Friday, students learned that ladybugs feed on plant lice and other insects that are harmful to gardens, trees and shrubs.

“They eat pesticides,” Stull said of the ladybugs. “So it’s important to keep them near dirt – which I didn’t know until now.”

Aside from the morning’s excitement, even the youngest knew what the Earth Day event was all about.

“We put the ladybugs in the dirt,” described 3-year-old Jenna Michalek-Johnson. “They’re going to clean up.”