Insect Activities

We made some cute insect models of ants out of egg cartons.

This week we finished our insect reports.We used insects after reading our Reading Streets Play on Ants. I had each student get an insect book out of the library, we wrote down facts in cooperative groups. Then we added those facts to our own “sloppy copies”.  Everybody shared facts. Then I edited the reports.

Then we rewrote them on this nice insect stationery. I had 2 styles to choose from.

           Then we illustrated them.  I loved this dragonfly and all the beautiful background too…

       Fabulous art here! I think Jack did this one. I gave them simple clip art insects to use as models.

  Ant and Caterpillar poems in the pocket chart center….The kids had 5 poems to choose from.

There’s a ladybug poem and a cricket and one other.

We used egg cartons cut into 3 sections for the 3 body parts of the insects. They chose their own pip cleaners, wiggly eyes and made a tongue and antennaes.  Some are very colorful! We made our ant models out of egg cartons cut into 3 body parts and painted. We painted the egg cartons red or brown or black then when they were dried we added the pipe cleaners and wigglyeyes. We sang the song THE ANTS GO MARCHING 1 BY 1 HURRAH too. Kididdles has the words and click for the music too.  We made “ants” after reading our Reading Streets Literature play on the Ants and several other cute stories about the hard life of an ant. .

             After we wrote our reports I had the kids draw pictures of their insects and color them.

Insect cards with facts on the back I got from the Dollar Store at the science center..

Insect Books at the Science Center

                                      I like this one…its got character!

                                 Gotta love a ladybug, right?

                                           Dragonflies were very popular reports…..

Ladybug art….so beautiful! I have some really talented kiddos

Last year we made grasshopper life cycles. They were too easy. This year we did Insect reports. The wheel printable can be found at Lapbook Lessons. for a fun extension.

                                 Some did praying mantises and others did crickets or grasshoppers.

 Did you know there were 300,000 kinds of beetles in the world? Yeah, me neither!

                                              Henry had a walkingstick and a buddy on his back!

            I think we only had a few  ladybugs in the bunch!

 This insect was so nicely done, I was quite impressed by Kiera’s art talent!

We did a few worksheets too; a crossword puzzle and a cut and paste about insect vocabulary. The link for some great worksheets and crosswords is at Boggle Worlds.

Then we wrote reports on insects. They got into cooperative groups and had individual school library books on their insect of choice. Everybody shared facts with everybody else. They are very proud of their research reports.

I found some cute stationery in a Scholastic book Check it out HERE.

Insect reports – the kids did whatever insect they chose.

Here is a close up of the ants and the reports

We are all proud of our little ant creations….

Here are some of the Cooperative Group’s posters….everybody added facts to the posters of Ants, Grasshoppers,, Dragonflies and Fireflies, Beetles and Ladybugs, and Honeybees/Wasps/Yellowjackets.

Insects hanging out at the Science Center of our classroom….

My SCIENCE CENTER has insect books, write and wipe off activities and these insects with viewers. It also includes the microscope with slides of insects morphing. It is a popular center.

Great job everybody. I loved teaching you all about INSECTS!