Bugs Lesson Feb 8th

Sorry everyone I started writing this and got distracted with life and forgot all about it. So here it is finally!

Gathering Activity: Playdough

Lesson topics:
Number 3
Letter I
Color Black
Shape Square
Topic Bugs (more specifically Insects and Spiders)

We began by talking about the letter I, the word Insect, the number 3 and the color black. First we took turns finding black things in the room. Then we learned that the word insect starts with the letter I and that insects have three main body parts (Head, Thorax, and Abdomen) Then we sang and insect song to the tune Head, Shoulders, Knees and toes.

Insect Song
Head, thorax, abdomen
abdomen, abdomen
Head thorax abdomen
six legs and Antenae

We then then talked about how spiders are different than insects because spiders have eight legs and two body sections. I handed out pictures of bugs to the boys and let them use a magnifying glass to decide if it was a picture of an insect or a spider.

We then took the boys to the table to have them paint/design their own bugs for the blue binders.

EM's bug picture

J,T,EM, and C(EM's brother) painting their bugs

We watched a short video that showed the life cycle of a butterfly. Click here to see it too.

Then we acted out the life cycle of a butterfly by being the caterpillar crawling around on the floor eating everything in sight, then wrapping in a big blanket for a chrysalis and lastly flapping our arms like a butterfly. The boys seemed to really enjoy that.

For snacks they boys got to make their own spider with Ritz crackers, cream cheese, craisins for eyes and pretzel legs.

J shows off his spider

Spider snack

While the boys ate their snack I read the book the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carl

We then talked a bit about bees and how bees use pheromones or smells to identify each other. Each student was then given a paper cup with a cotton ball in it that had one of three smells (Vanilla, Cinnamon, and butter) They then had to go around smelling each others cups to find the person with there matching smell.

Lastly we made a butterfly life cycle mobile that had a leaf with eggs on it (green construction paper with sesame seeds glued to it) caterpillar (twisted pipe cleaner) chrysalis or cocoon (twisted up tissue paper) and a butterfly (laminated pouch colored before laminating with crayon)

Butterfly life Cycle Mobile