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| Insects and Spiders |
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Submit your insect ideas!!
SONGS, POEMS AND FINGERPLAYS
- Bugs
(Sung to tune "Frere Jacques")
Big bugs, small bugs, big bugs, small bugs,
See them crawl, see them crawl.
Creepy, creepy, crawling, never, never falling
Bugs, bugs, bugs. Bugs, bugs, bugs.
Thin bugs, fat bugs, thin bugs, fat bugs
See them crawl, on the wall.
Creepy, creepy, crawling, never, never falling
Bugs, bugs, bugs. Bugs, bugs, bugs.
- The Insects and Spiders
(Sung to tune "The Wheels on the Bus")
The bugs in the air fly up and down,
up and down, up and down.
The bugs in the air fly up and down
all through the day.
Other verses:
The spiders on the bush spin a web.
The crickets in the field hop up and down.
The bees in their hive go buzz, buzz, buzz.
- Ants
Once I saw an ant hill, with no ants about.
So I said, "Little ants, won't you please come out?"
Then as if they heard my call, one, two, three, four, five came out.
And that was all!
- The Caterpillar
A caterpillar crawled to the top of a tree,
(index finger of left hand moves up right arm)
"I think I'll take a nap", said he.
So under a leaf, he began to creep
(Wrap right hand over left fist)
To spin his chrysalis and he fell asleep.
All winter long he slept in his chrysalis bed,
(Keep right hand over left fist)
Till spring came along one day, and said,
"Wake up, wake up little sleepy head."
(Shake left fist with right hand)
"Wake up, it's time to get out of bed!"
So, he opened his eyes that sun shiny day
(Shake fingers and look into hand)
Lo--he was a butterfly and flew away!
(Move hand into flying motion)
- Grasshoppers
(Sung to tune "Battle Hymn of the Republic")
The first grasshopper humped right over the second grasshopper's back,
Oh, the first grasshopper jumped right over the second grasshopper's back
The first grasshopper jumped right over the second grasshopper's back,
Oh, the first grasshopper jumped right over.
They were only playing leapfrog.
They were only playing leapfrog.
They were only playing leapfrog,
When the first grasshopper jumped right over.
- Funny Little Caterpillar
Funny little caterpillar crawling on the ground.
(Crawl index finger up arm)
Spin yourself a blanket and then go fast asleep.
(Twirl finger around and around and then tuck finger into hand)
Fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar wakes up by and by.
Now you have two pretty wings. You're a butterfly!
(Move hand into flying motion)
ARTS AND CRAFTS
- Make insects and spiders out of clay. Use toothpicks, straw and pipe cleaner
segments for the appendages.
- Make insects and spiders with thumb prints. Children can draw crayon legs to
make prints look like insects and spiders.
- Egg Carton Caterpillars- Cut egg cartons in half, lengthwise. Each child
paints a carton half. When dry, children can make a face on the end of the carton
and insert pipe cleaners or straws for feelers.
- Beehive Pencil Holders
Let children glue four egg carton cups together (three on the bottom, one centered
on top), paint or cut an opening in the hive (the middle cup), and then paint bees on the
hive. As a last step, tell children to poke a hole in the top of the hive for a pencil.
- Ladybug- Gather a bucket of smooth rocks. Let each child pick a rock. Provide
red and black tempera and paintbrushes for the children to paint the rocks to look like
ladybugs.
- Butterfly Wings
- More Caterpillars
- Balloon Bugs
- More Butterfly Art
- Spider Art
- Butterfly Pretzels
- This great art idea for spiders was sent in by Angela. Thanks, Angela!
Hand Print Spiders
Make half of your spider by pressing a handprint onto a page. With your OTHER hand, pointing the opposite direction, make another handprint, placing the palm over the palm print already on the page, making sure fingers are pointing the opposite direction of the exsisting finger prints. The two thumbs become eyes, the remaining 8 fingers legs. Very cute on a pre-painted web.
- This neat art idea for spiders gave from Barbara. Thanks, Barbara!
We made spiders out of an empty thread spool and dryer lint. First you need to take 2 pieces of black pipe cleaner and cut them in half so that you have 4 pieces. Insert them through the holes in the thread spool. Glue down. Take gobs of dryer lint and glue to spool, covering it entirely. Use two small green or red sequins, buttons, etc. for eyes. The kids loved this-they loved that they were "gross".
- Liz sent in this great idea! Thanks, Liz!
Ladybugs
Cut a styrofoam ball in half lengthwise. Paint the top of the styrofoam ball red with acrylic paint.
After the red paint has dried, use a thin paintbrush and dot black paint all over the back.
Add antennaes by using pipe cleaners (glittery pipecleaners are the best looking!).
Add eyes to the ladybug by using googley eyes and tacky glue. These are easy and absolutely darling!!!
- Lea submitted the following idea--thanks!
See-Through Insects
Tired of left over laminating paper? Cut out insect wings with left over laminating paper. Use toilet paper or paper towel
rolls for the body, and pipe cleaners for the antenas, and legs. Students will have a ball creating insects, such as
"the spider fly."
- Andrea submitted the following idea--thanks!
Butterfly
With a coffee filter you use watercolors to make dots on it and deocorate it. Then gather it together with a pipe cleaner to make a butterfly.
- Cathy wrote to us about her ladybug idea--thanks!
Ladybugs
My pre k class has been studying ladybugs this month. We made matching ladybug pins for mothers and fathers day. We poured plaster of paris into a spoon,dried for a day,took mold out of spoon, painted them, sprayed a clear coat and glued a pin back on. For Fathers Day we took a lima bean (planting/garden theme) painted it and placed at tie pin on the back. Now Mom's and Dad have matching pins. They all wore them to graduation.
RECIPES
- Spider Web Cake
- Ants on a Log
Slice cleaned celery into 3-inch pieces. Have children use plastic knives or craft
sticks to stuff the celery with peanut butter. Place raisin "ants" on top of celery before
eating.
- Fruit Caterpillars
For each caterpillar:
1 wooden kabob stick
sliced bananas
melon balls
grapes
raisins
Alternate fruit on wooden sticks. Antennae may be added with raisins on toothpicks.
- Butterfly Brownies
4 squares unsweetened chocolate
2 sticks melted butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
licorice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup chocolate chips
Mix together all ingredients except licorice and chips. Fold in chocolate chips.
Spread in 9"x13" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Cool and cut out squares.
Cut squares in half diagonally and shape butterflies. Use two cut diagonals for each
butterfly. Add licorice to make antennae.
- Bug Salad
Ingredients: Canned peache or pear halves, lettuce, raisins, chow mein noodles,
cream cheese, maraschino cherries cut in slices, carrot curls.
Place one peach or pear half on lettuce-lined plate. Attach raisin eyes, maraschino
cherry mouth, and chow mein noodle antennae with dabs of cream cheese. Place carrot
curl legs around the peach half body. (To make carrot curls, use a vegetable peeler to
peel wide strips from carrot. Roll up each strip and fasten with toothpick. Place curls
into a bowl of ice water for several minutes. Remove toothpicks before placing
them around the peach half.)
OTHER ACTIVITIES
- Amazing Ants-
Tell children that an ant can carry ten times its own weight. Then ask them which
of the following things they think an ant could carry:
raisin, cup of milk, birdseed, cookie crumb, spider, fly, sandwich, grain of rice,
grain of sugar.
- Spider Game-
Teach this song to children:
One little spider went out to play,
On a spider's web one day.
He had such enormous fun,
He asked another little spider to come.
Have children form circle. Choose one child to stand in center of circle. Have
children sing song. As they sing, have the "spider" invite another child to
join him in his "web". On the next verse, have children sing "two little spiders.." and
invite another child to join group. Continue in this way until all children are in the
"web".
- Read Janet Chernery's book Wolfie to children. Then ask them to use facts
in the story to help them write, tell or draw diagrams that illustrate at least two
differences between spiders and insects.
- Read Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar to
children. See how many foods children can recall that the caterpillar eats. Ask
them which foods a caterpillar would not really eat. What do you think the caterpillar
ate after it became a butterfly? Make some very funny caterpillars. You will need old
socks, string, small felt circles, rubber bands, cotton or polyester filling, scissors,
fabric glue and pipe cleaners. Show children how to stuff the bottom, or toe-end
of their socks with filling. Then tie off the stuffed section with a piece of string.
Make sure they leave room for four stuffed sections. Make the other three sections the same
way but close the last section with a rubber band. This end will be the caterpillar's
mouth. Show students how to wrap pipe cleaners between the sections and shape them
into feet. They can make antennae with the pipe cleaners too. Paste felt circles
onto caterpillar's face to make eyes. These can be great puppets to tell the story of
The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
- Firefly Fun
Give each child three cotton balls. Show them how to glue balls together in a row.
Cut out pairs of wings from construction paper and glue them to the middle cotton ball. Draw a
face with black marker and add pipe cleaner antennae. Let students cover last cotton
ball with glow-in-dark paint. Wait for paint to dry. After the cotton-ball fireflies
have been held up to a lamp, turn off lights. Students' fireflies will glow in the dark.
Sing "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" as fireflies glow in dark.
- Shelagh sent me this great variation of "Pin
the Tail on the Donkey". Thanks, Shelagh!
Pin the Spider on the Web Game
Buy or make a large paper spider web.
You can make small colored paper spiders using colored dot stickers
for the body. (you need the spiders colored so you know what
spider belongs to each child.
Make this ahead of time.
To Play
blind-fold a child,spin them around and point them in the direction
of the web on the wall. With their spider in their hand they have
to put it on as close to the middle as they can.
The closest spider to the middle wins.
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