Insects- All about Honey Bees

BEES
Matching Shapes
I found this printable at http://www.giftofcuriosity.com

 SCIENCE
Parts of an insects

1. I had each child cut the 3 body parts. As we glued them we named each one in the correct order.
2. I had the children remind me how many legs an insect has (6) and have them cut the premade strips shorter to make legs.
3. We talked about other characteristics insects have such as an exoskeleton, and that means that their skeleton is on the outside. The children told me the purpose of an exoskeleton "to protect them like a shield"
4. Another characteristic is that insects have antennae which helps them smell. The children then glued their antennae
5. They cut and glued their wings to their honey bee. I have them cut EVERYTHING, with little to no help. It's really important to develop fine motor skills.
6. Now for the fun part, they got to decorate their bee with stripes, a stinger, and a face.

TADAA...

look how cute and unique each one turned out!

 

Make a Honeycomb

We ended up not having enough rolls :(  But my classroom aid made a small honeycomb for our bulleting board.  Click  on http://www.deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com for how to make a honeycomb.

15 Easy Bee Crafts: Preschool & Big Kids

 

SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS

 

VOCABULARY  for this activity
Nectar, honey bee, pollen, proboscis, beehive  

For my preschoolers I ended up using a bowl instead with taped flower petals to make it look like a jump flower. I placed a starburt inside and the children had to collect their nectar. Subsequently, during the process flower dust ( POLLEN) got all over them.

 

 

Insects- All About Butterflies

BUTTERFLIES GALORE

Circle Time

We reviewed the life cycle; click here to see how I incorporate creative movement, to help my students remember the butterfly life cycle. After they had all turned into beautiful butterflies I took my little ones on an adventure. We searched high and low for flowers. Finally when snack was ready, I gave a holler and said I FOUND FLOWERS FULL OF NECTAR. All my butterflies flew to the tables and sipped their "nectar" through their proboscis.

 

Snack

I used a die cut to make the flowers and poked a hole, in the middle, with a pencil. The straws were too long and had be shorten to fit their dixie cups.

ART-butterfly bracelets 

They REALLY enjoyed playing with these.

In the classroom

and outside.

SCIENCE-Life Cycle

Coloring the life cycle stages



It best to print it double sided so that the children do little less cutting and use less paper. I found this cute butterfly life cycle on CutesyCrafts.com, as a free printable. Make sure to read her posting, or you'll miss it. It's a click HERE link.

THE STAGES

 

Caterpillar

 

Chrysalis 

Butterfly



 

Their antennae fell off :(

 MAGIC SCHOOL BUS butterfly episode

 





Insects- All About Ladybugs

MUSIC AND MOVEMENT

SCIENCE

ladybug life cycle puzzle

I have the kids take turns telling me the life cycle. I bought this puzzle on Amazon

 

 MATH

Download this Math Worksheet

Fill in the missing number, ladybug edition 

Learning centers

All of these lapbooks were made from worksheets I downloaded  from http://www.giftofcuriosity.com/. She has an insect FREE printable packet

 

MATCHING SHADOWS

 MATH- one to one correspondence

counting spots

 

 MATH-  one to one correspondence

Roll the dice and cover the ladybug spots with the corresponding number on the dice.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Letter Matching/ beginning sounds
You can find this ladybug alphabet puzzle on Amazon

 

Even though it's considered  a word family activity, I use it as a rhyming center. Click on Lady bug word family printable to see what other word family printables they have.

Click  HERE for TONS of FREE ladybug printables and activities!

SCIENCE: Acting out the Butterfly life cycle.

Music and Movement
Making learning fun!!

I lay my eggs on a big green leaf.

My butterfly larva begin to eat their way out of their egg shell. Of course my hungry caterpillars pretend to eat and eat and eat.

Then they get ready, by hanging upside down "hanging J" and shed one last time. They are now in their chrysalis. When I give them the cue the begin to slowly move and make their way out flapping their wet small wings (chicken wings). after a while their wings are "dry" and full size. I let them fly around looking for flowers to drink some nectar.

This is such a fun way to review the butterfly cycle. I've done this inside the classroom as well as outdoors. They love it!