When the nice weather first arrived, Leo was going through a phase of being afraid of bugs! I was terrified that we were going to be confined to our house all summer for fear of flies, mosquitoes and don’t EVEN get me started on bees! Yikes.
Thankfully, the phase did not last long and he was back to picking up ants & worms and getting somewhat dangerously close to bees as they buzz through our plants in the front yard. I have to admit, I’m not a “bug” person myself (yeah I’m a science person, but you can keep the insects) but I am so happy that my boys are so interested in these little creatures!
This whole drama was the inspiration for our week on insects! We checked out some awesome Eric Carle books, searched for bugs outside to observe in our bug catcher (and release of course), and did a few indoor projects to go along with the theme!
Thankfully, the phase did not last long and he was back to picking up ants & worms and getting somewhat dangerously close to bees as they buzz through our plants in the front yard. I have to admit, I’m not a “bug” person myself (yeah I’m a science person, but you can keep the insects) but I am so happy that my boys are so interested in these little creatures!
This whole drama was the inspiration for our week on insects! We checked out some awesome Eric Carle books, searched for bugs outside to observe in our bug catcher (and release of course), and did a few indoor projects to go along with the theme!
BOOKS
When we were at the library, i knew that I could go to one specific section and find all of the books I needed about insects! Eric Carle has several titles such as The Very Busy Spider, The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Clumsy Click Beetle, and of course, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We looked at these books several times throughout the week and they served as some good talking and reference points!
OBSERVING & RELEASING INSECTS
While we were outside, the boys searched for any type of flying, crawling or wiggling creature that they could get their hands on! Worms (not an insect, but for their purposes I went with it) are a favorite and they dug some up while we were planting some last minute flowers. We also saw some painted lady butterflies (the same species that we hatched and released this past spring) that seem to love our lilacs! We were lucky enough to actually catch one in our little bug catcher to get a closer look and then released after a few minutes! Ants are also a fan-favorite around here. Xander allows them to crawl on him which gives me the chills, but, to each their own! These boys love their bugs!
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES
I created a few indoor activities to use as “breakfast invitations” or for those meltdown moments where we just need something quick to distract and occupy their brains! The first thing I did was a practice with counting. I drew a ladybug, drew some circles and put numbers in them. Then, I cut out black circles with the same numbers to match. You could do the same activity with letters or with matching uppercase and lowercase letters for those bigger kiddos!
Next up: Bees. I created two variations for this breakfast invitation. For Leo, I’m trying to challenge him with his full name (Leonidas) since he seems to have L-E-O down. I drew a bee with stripes and wrote the letters of his name in alternating spaces. I then cut out strips of black paper with the same letters on them and mixed them up so he would match the letters to their spaces. For Xander, I stuck to numbers and also did some little bees with numbers off to the side for a little more practice with number recognition.
Another activity that I came up with was drawing an ant maze. Leo has taken an interest in ants so I quickly drew a maze and two ants. I told him that he had to try to move the ant through the maze to find the other one. He didn’t quite grasp the concept and made a straight line with his ant to the other, but we’ll keep working on it! To his credit, he did go the shortest distance to complete the task!
I wanted to have the boys practice holding a writing utensil and drawing different lines and tracing names, so I created an insect themed tracing page just using Microsoft Publisher. I found some pictures of bugs that I liked, then created lines and shapes using the drawing tools and made them into dotted lines that they would commonly see for tracing practice.
Last, I created one activity for both boys but presented it in two ways to differentiate for their levels. I printed out a basic sheet with numbers 1-5 and empty boxes next to each number. I then printed out 5 of different insects (bees, ants, butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs, grasshoppers) and cut them out into squares that would fit into the boxes. For Leo, I set one bug picture next to each number. He then had to place the correct insect and use the correct number of each one. For Xander, I just told him to fill in the boxes with whichever pictures that he wanted. The main focus for him is practicing counting and number recognition.
Next up: Bees. I created two variations for this breakfast invitation. For Leo, I’m trying to challenge him with his full name (Leonidas) since he seems to have L-E-O down. I drew a bee with stripes and wrote the letters of his name in alternating spaces. I then cut out strips of black paper with the same letters on them and mixed them up so he would match the letters to their spaces. For Xander, I stuck to numbers and also did some little bees with numbers off to the side for a little more practice with number recognition.
Another activity that I came up with was drawing an ant maze. Leo has taken an interest in ants so I quickly drew a maze and two ants. I told him that he had to try to move the ant through the maze to find the other one. He didn’t quite grasp the concept and made a straight line with his ant to the other, but we’ll keep working on it! To his credit, he did go the shortest distance to complete the task!
I wanted to have the boys practice holding a writing utensil and drawing different lines and tracing names, so I created an insect themed tracing page just using Microsoft Publisher. I found some pictures of bugs that I liked, then created lines and shapes using the drawing tools and made them into dotted lines that they would commonly see for tracing practice.
Last, I created one activity for both boys but presented it in two ways to differentiate for their levels. I printed out a basic sheet with numbers 1-5 and empty boxes next to each number. I then printed out 5 of different insects (bees, ants, butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs, grasshoppers) and cut them out into squares that would fit into the boxes. For Leo, I set one bug picture next to each number. He then had to place the correct insect and use the correct number of each one. For Xander, I just told him to fill in the boxes with whichever pictures that he wanted. The main focus for him is practicing counting and number recognition.
Overall, the theme was a success! The boys were definitely interested and I’m sure we will revisit this topic many times throughout the summer! Hope you guys have a great week and let me know if you try out any of these activities with your kids!
RSS Feed
