Insects and Other Bugs Activities

It isn't spring in kindergarten if you aren't talking about bugs! How many ladybugs, beetles, and other crawling bugs do your children bring to you each day on the playground? Here are some of the fun activities we are doing to learn all about Insects and Other Bugs.

I know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a...

Invite the children to create the old lady paper doll. When gluing down the mouth, only put the glue along the left edge. This will allow you to lift the mouth. Select an insect clip art picture to glue inside the mouth.  On another day, provide the children with the clues frame. The children write clues to match the insect inside the mouth. Writing clues is a great way to teach descriptive language. 

SWAT! It!

Use this fly swatter activity to teach subtraction.  Reproduce a fly swatter clip art and a swat blob.  Invite the children to glue them to the paper and add a handle to the fly swatter.  Provide the children with 2 dice. Roll the dice and write the number sentence on the recording page. Glue fly clip art to the project to match the number sentence. Write the subtraction story on the recording page.

Ant Hill Subtraction

Give the children the ant hill pattern. Invite the children to use a black crayon or marker to draw anthill tunnels. Roll two dice and write the equation on the recording page. Using a new pencil, children dip the eraser end into black paint. Print 3 dots touching to make an ant. Make ants on the paper to match the equation. Once they are dry, add features with a marker. Write the subtraction story on the recording page.

What is in the Jar?

Here is another fun activity to teach descriptive language. Invite the children to make the kid holding the bug jar.  Use scrap paper to create a bug in the jar.  Provide a second jar clip art with lines for writing clues. Children write three clues about the bug in their jar.

Ordinal Number Bugs

Make a flap foldable by creating 9 different sections on the folded strip of paper.  Sequence the numbers on each of the flaps. Glue a bug under each flap.  Each child's work will be different as they can glue the bugs in any order they wish! Record the ordinal position of each bug on the recording page. Use a bingo dotter to add color to the bugs.

Ladybug Cookies

Kids love to cook! Cooking is a great way to teach procedural text. The children must read the recipe to know how to make the cookies. For this cooking activity, the children frost a sugar cookie red, yellow or orange. Then, they add an oreo for the head, chocolate chips for the spots, and yellow gel frosting for the eyes. 

Cookie Graph

Once the kids make their cookies, create a graph to show which colors the kids frosted their ladybug cookies.  Invite the children to ask their friends what color they frosted their ladybugs. Tally the results. Next, use the tally marks to create a graph.  Last, the children use the graph to analyze the data.

Number Word Jars

These jars are an easy way to teach number words and to develop a mental image for each number using a tens frame. On each page, the children glue bugs into the tens frame to match the number word. Use bingo dotters to add color to the bugs.

_ug Family Game

This game is useful for teaching words in the _ug family. Invite the children to place the various onset circles onto the game board to produce _ug family words.

Toilet Paper Roll Ladybug

As the children are making the words on the game board, record the words on the recording page.  Paint a toilet paper roll red. Add wings, spots, eyes, nose and antennas to make a ladybug.  Roll up the list of _ug family words and slide it inside the toilet paper roll.

Bug Jar Number Fun

This bug jar game is a great way to introduce the concept of mixed operations. To play the game, give each child a game board, insect clip art, and a dice. Invite the children to roll the dice. Put that many bugs in the jar. In this example, the child rolled a 3, so there are now 3 bugs in the jar.

Roll again. This time the child rolled a 2. They must decide what they need to do in order to have two bugs in the jar. I ask them, "do you need to take some out, or put some in?"  The correct response will be that they need to take one out to get from 3 to 2.  Continue to roll and move bugs so that the number on the dice matches the number of bugs in the jar.

The ideas in this blog post came from this unit.