HS Bugs and Insects

Interest Area Changes to Environment

Fake Flowers Top Soil Bugs Hand size plastic shovel Hand size plastic rake Coffee Filter Clothespin Magnify Glass Bug Catcher Binoculars Cotton Balls Blue Paper Insect Stampers Foam Pieces Sponges Tissue Paper Paper Plate Insect Lacing Cards Insect File Folder Game Picnic Basket Prop Box Empty wasp nest Empty bee hive Fly swatter Empty container of honey *Sensory Table Idea— add bags of green Easter grass to the sensory table, and hide plastic ladybugs, ants, or spiders in the grass. Have each child at the sensory table use a pair of tweezers and a bug box searching through the grass to find the bugs, pick them up with tweezers, and place them in their bug box.

Teaching Concepts for Large Group

1.  What is an insect?  A small animal with a hard covering over its body. Most kinds of insects have a body that is divided into three parts. Most insects also have three pairs of legs and one or two pairs of wings. Insects are arthropods. Bees, ants, butterflies, beetles, and flies are kinds of insects. *Show different “real” insect pictures. 2.  How are all insects alike? They may all look different, but they are alike. They are alike in three ways. 1.  Six legs 2.  Three main body sections (head, thorax, and abdomen) hard skeleton One way all insects are alike is that they have six legs. Three legs on each side of the body. The legs are attached to the thorax. The thorax is the middle part of an insect’s body. Many insects have wings that are attached to the thorax. Behind the thorax is the abdomen. It is usually the largest part of an insect. In front of the thorax is the head. Eyes and a mouth are located in the head. Antennae or feelers are also found on the head. These are used to smell, feel, and taste things. Insects have a skeleton too! Their skeleton is on the outside of their bodies. It is called an exoskeleton. Your skeleton is found inside your body, and it is made of bones. An insect’s skeleton is the hardest part of its body. It is made of a material called chitin. 3.  What do insects eat? 4.  What insects do you want to learn more about? Chart and research these to give the children basic information on their favorites. 5. Chart favorite insect. 6. How do insects and bugs move? Fly, crawl, jump. Go over each with examples. 7. Where do insects and bugs live? 8. What eats bugs?

Teaching Concepts for Small Group

1. Week long “Special Activity” – Art:  Discuss the life cycle of a butterfly again as you did in large group. Day 1- Make a cocoon with a toilet paper tube and white yarn. Day 2- Decorate a clothespin with pom poms to look like a caterpillar and put it inside the cocoon. Day 3- Paint a coffee filter with watercolor paints. Day 4- When it is time for the butterfly to come out of the cocoon, the butterfly “wings” are then clipped in the clothespin caterpillar. 2.  Bug Sorting – many variations of this game; bugs that fly, bugs that crawl, bugs, animals, etc.. 3.  Bug Patterns – using bug stampers have the children create and follow patterns. 4.  Bee Hive Game –  Give each student in the small group a mat. Use yellow pom-poms and have them in the center of the table in a container so they are easily accessible to all children. Each child takes a turn rolling the die and putting the corresponding number of bees on their mat. When there is one bee on each beehive on the mat the students have successfully completed the game.  Here is a link to the game board:  http://www.pre-kpages.com/docs/bee121.pdf 5.  Egg Carton Ants - Children paint an egg carton (cut so that each child had 3 egg cups for the 3 body parts) with their choice of either red, brown, or black paint. Add wiggle eyes and pipe cleaner pieces for the antennae and legs. 6.  Catching Insects - Children wrap plastic insects with yarn (silk) like a spider would to capture it. When they finish, they choose wrapped bugs from the bowl, guess what kind they are, then unwrap them to see if they guessed correctly. 7.  Spider Ring Game - Children roll a die and place that amount of spider rings on their fingers. 8.  Sorting by Sizes - Use three sizes of craft pom-poms (pretend fuzzy bugs) to sort by size into different sized containers. 9.  Spider Legs - Insects get stuck in a spider’s web because the spider’s web is sticky, but a spider does not because it’s legs are oily. Experiment with this idea by taping two squares of contact paper to the table, sticky side up. Pretend your hand is a bug, with your legs (fingers) sticking to the web. Using the other square of contact paper, pretend to be a spider, dipping your legs (fingers) into baby oil first, then walking across the sticky “web”. 10. Play dough bug fossils 11. Classify objects into Insects or not insects.

Teaching Concepts for Music Movement Wellness IMIL

1.  Flight of the Bumble Bee – Pass a beanbag (the “bee”) like a hot potato around the circle of children while the music played. Occasionally, stop the music, which means the person with the beanbag is “stung” and moves to the middle of the circle. 2.  A Fly is on my toe Tune: “Farmer in the Dell” A fly is on my toe, A fly is on my toe, Hi-ho, just watch me blow. A fly is on my toe Other verses: A fly is on my nose ,my head, my ear, my elbow, my knee,etc..

Teaching Concepts for Fingerplays

1.  Bee Hive Here is the bee hive (Cup hands together) Where are the bees? (Peek into hive) Hidden away where nobody sees. (Hide hive behind back) Watch and you’ll see them come out of the hive. (Bring hive back out front) 1…2…3…4…5…BUZZ! (Open fingers one by one. Fingers become the buzzing bees) 2.  Itsy Bitsy Spider 3.  Little Miss Muffet Little Miss Muffet, Sat on a tuffet, Eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider, Who sat down beside her, And frightened Miss Muffet away! 4. Fuzzy Wuzzy Caterpillar Fuzzy Wuzzy Caterpillar Into a corner will creep  (creep fingers up arm) He’ll spin himself a blanket (roll hands) And then fall fast asleep  (rest head, close eyes) Fuzzy, wuzzy caterpillar Very soon will rise  (wake up) And find he has grown beautiful wings (connect thumbs and flap hands like wings) Now he’s a butterfly! 5. Five little ladybugs I saw a little ladybug flying in the air, But when I tried to catch her, two bugs were there. Two little ladybugs flew up in a tree. I tiptoed very quietly, and then I saw three. Three little ladybugs–I looked for one more. I saw one sitting on the ground, that made four. Four little ladybugs–another one arrived. I saw her sitting on a flower, and that made five. Five little ladybugs, all red and black– I clapped my hands and shouted, and they all flew back!

Teaching Concepts for Outdoor Experiences

1.  Nature Walk – What bugs and insects did you see? How did you find them? Did you see them on a tree? Under a rock? Flying around? 2.  At the circle, children toss a ball of white yarn to each other. As the children catch the yarn, they hold onto part of it, and throw it to the next person. This makes a giant spider web.

CLASS Concepts

 When reading books about bugs, build on the children’s previous learning and discuss if the book is fiction or non-fiction. Repeat their answer back to them and extend it. “Oh, you said that The Grouchy Ladybug is a fiction book, a book that has a make believe story. That’s right, this is a fiction book. The events in the story didn’t really happen. What are some clues that told you that this was a fiction book, or made up story?” You can do this with every book you read. Just as you talk about the author, illustrators, and publisher, ask them to predict if they think the book will be fiction or non-fiction and why. After you finish the book, remember to ask them if their prediction was correct. You can integrate The Grouch Ladybug book into a discussion about behavior and feelings. Talk about the importance of being able to express our feelings yet at the same time being careful not to take out what we’re feeling on another person. • Discuss some of the differences between spiders, or arachnids, and insects. Insects have 6 legs and spiders have 8 legs. Spiders can’t fly where as many insects have wings and can fly. Provide a mixture of plastic spiders and insects. Allow children to classify them into two groups. Ask the child to tell you how he knew in which group they belonged. Ask the child to come up with another way they could be grouped (size, color, winged and wingless, etc..)

Teaching Concepts for Distance Learning

 Egg Carton Ants - Children paint an egg carton (cut so that each child had 3 egg cups for the 3 body parts) with their choice of either red, brown, or black paint. Add wiggle eyes and pipe cleaner pieces for the antennae and legs. Catching Insects - Children wrap plastic insects with yarn (silk) like a spider would to capture it. When they finish, they choose wrapped bugs from the bowl, guess what kind they are, then unwrap them to see if they guessed correctly.

 Spider Ring Game - Children roll a die and place that amount of spider rings on their fingers.

 Sorting by Sizes - Use three sizes of craft pom-poms (pretend fuzzy bugs) to sort by size into different sized containers. Spider Legs - Insects get stuck in a spider’s web because the spider’s web is sticky, but a spider does not because it’s legs are oily. Experiment with this idea by taping two squares of contact paper to the table, sticky side up. Pretend your hand is a bug, with your legs (fingers) sticking to the web. Using the other square of contact paper, pretend to be a spider, dipping your legs (fingers) into baby oil first, then walking across the sticky “web”.