Like most boys, my kids love learning about the little big world that surrounds us. Did you know that there are 200 million insects for every person on the planet?! (Larry Pedigo, Iowa State University) During our lessons this week, we talked about the difference between insects, bugs, and arachnids and only scratched the surface on this topic.

Books:

We started off with a short and fun book to get their interest peaked. This book was a favorite of little 4 because of how it could be read with such expression.

My kids liked this next book, but it may make mom a little queasy.

I highly recommend picking up a few books that are more informative than fun to go with your unit study. You’d be surprised how interested littles can become in these fact-filled tomes once the topic has captured their attention.

This Kingfisher Young Knowledge book had beautiful images and larger print. A great introduction to the world of insects for a younger crowd.

There are SO MANY parts of the insect activities online. I made this one by laminating the cardstock and using velcro dots (cut in half) so they could repeat the activity many times over.

This insect puzzle was a great addition to our shelf this month. I usually leave activities like puzzles out for the kids to pick up whenever they are called to do so…and every time I switch out the puzzles, they jump on the opportunity without me bringing it up. 🙂

Nothing like a love-bug activity with googly eyes….the best part? You probably already have everything you need at home!

I must confess…I am a Kiwico collector. I have boxes stacked in my closet, waiting for their turn to be worked into our unit studies. When my kids see those boxes come out, they immediately call it a “fun school day”. They love digging in with the surprises found inside of these boxes. The wings below are a great example of one of the activities from their Koala Crates. This isn’t a sponsored post, I just love how easy these boxes make planning.

Finally, our felt board needed a little love. One of the best databases for Classic Homeschooling is Twinkl (not sponsored). They offer full lesson plans with original stories and corresponding activities. Here, we used their lesson on “The Cautious Caterpillar”. I used the images from this story to build a felt board (to focus on retelling the story). They also had conversation cards, addition to 10 (color by number), an activity on symmetry, and a board game that reviews details of the story. If you are looking for an all-in-one lesson plan, you may want to check them out.

Outside of the lesson plans that corresponded with the story of the caterpillar, Twinkl had more activities than I could count when approaching the topic of insects, bugs, and arachnids. One of my family’s favorites was the brain break activity below. We would pull a card throughout the day to get them moving. You could even adapt the activity into a game by having your students pull a card and play charades to get the others to guess what they are moving like!

Overall, I would call this first exploration of insects a success. There is so much out there, and so much we didn’t get the chance to do, that I know this will be a topic we explore again. It’s just a start, but I hope this post give you a bit of inspiration for your first go around. Let me know if you come across any incredible resources on your journey!