Insects

A few weeks ago we talked about insects. We did some fun things.

One of the main things I tried to help the children understand was that insects were different from spiders. We learned that insects have six legs, and spiders have eight legs.

On Tuesday, we did an insect hunt using our magnifying glasses. I had hidden lots of plastic insects in our classroom, and even a few that weren't insects. Each child got a turn to use the magnifying glass to find an insect and bring it back. We looked at them and talked about how they were similar and different.

On Thursday we made our own insects for our letter I craft using a molding dough, toothpicks, googly eyes, and "wings" from waxed paper. The students were very creative, and lots of their creations showed how much they had learned about insects. Several students' creations had three body segments, antennae and 6 legs. Pretty impressive!

Then for science we learned about the life cycle of a butterfly. We read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and watched a short video (about 2 minutes) that showed a time lapse of a Painted Lady Butterfly's life cycle.

We made coffee filter butterflies for art.

We've enjoyed watching our butterflies changing too. Last night our first butterfly emerged and another came out today. I am sure the students will be very excited to see that on Tuesday!