I picked up some crickets from the pet shop since it's too cold for an outdoor bug hunt. We searched the house for spiders to no avail. I guess that's a good thing, but I was a little disappointed.
The crickets were a hit! They were closely observed and joined us during story time, to bathroom breaks and even ate with us (lovely..)
Each day included circle time with songs about bugs including:
The itsy Bitsy Spider, Little Miss Muffet, Lady Bug Lady Bug (edited by me to Ladybug Ladybug fly away home. It's suppertime and your children are hungry.)
Poor little fly on the wall, the corner store (with verses about bugs), There was an old lady who swallowed a fly, and I'm bringing home my baby bumblebee.
Our story time included books such as:
These books are all available on Tumblebooks.com which is accessible for free through the Ottawa library's website.
We had fun doing buggy crafts too. My group is made up of 1-2 year olds but these crafts could be expanded on to match different ages and levels.
The Spiderweb threading craft
Needed: Paper plate, black paint or paper and glue, white yarn, hole punch, yarn needle or toothpick and tape
Have the kids paint the plate black or cut out a circle of black paper and glue it on.
Once dry, punch holes around the edges. Make sure they are not too close to the edge or they will rip (like ours did)
Cut pieces of yarn and loop them through the needles or tape them to toothpicks. I cover the ends of the toothpicks with tape to make them less pointy.
Tie one end to a hole and show the kids how to lace it through the holes.
Bumblebee Craft
We talked about colours and patterns, antennae and stingers. I cut out the pieces and the kids glued them on.
Lady Bug Craft
For us it was very basic. We painted paper plates red and glued on black dots. I let the kids try cutting out the dots but they weren't quite there yet (but still had fun cutting slits in the paper).
Another method for older kids is to paint a paper plate totally black and one totally red. Once dry, cut the red plate in half and paint dots on each side (Add a lesson in symmetry if you'd like!). Next add a splitting pin to the top between both top corners overlapped. Cut out a head from black paper and attach it to the top.
(PHOTO TO COME)
Firefly Craft
This one is very cute! Have the kids decorate coffee filters using washable markers. Then spritz them with some water and let them dry. Next take a plastic Easter egg and put a small glow stick inside. I glued them shut with a glue gun. Fold the filter in half and glue it on. add googly eyes with a glue gun. These are too cute and the kids loved playing with them. We played hide and go seek with them in the dark after making them.
Aren't they adorable?
We had a fun time searching for bugs and we altered the song "We're going on a bear hunt" to "We're going on a bug hunt". We just made up the verses as we went along and played a sort of follow the leader around the playroom during our bug hunt.
Another game we played this week was a game of tag where I was the spider and the kids were bugs (my dinner). I put little wings on all of them and turned around,counted to 10 and went and found them all. As you might imagine, 1-2 year olds aren't great at hiding but they had lots of fun being caught in my web! I used a dollar store fuzz spiderweb Halloween decoration and threw it onto them to catch them. In the past, with older kids, I actually used a can of silly string and chased them around trying to spray them with it. If it clung to them, they had to sit down until someone freed them from my webs. It was a lot of fun and we went through many cans of silly string. I wish I had a picture.. I will have to re-create this some time.
A bug! A bug! I see a bug!
Caught ya!
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