Who doesn’t like using food for science? After completing a unit on insects, end with allowing students to make their own out of food products. Remind them that they should make their insect scientifically correct (3 body parts, 6 legs)—if you are using this as an assessment, you might not want to give too many details. Things to include for them to build with are [Read more…]
Archives for December 2016
Insect ABC Poems
After reading Don’t Squash That Bug! and learning about insects through other books and activities, students can share their knowledge of insects by writing an acrostic poem. For each letter of the alphabet, students write a fact that they learned about insects. For instance, for the letter A, students could write something like “Ants live in colonies” or “Apples are a food that mealworms eat.” [Read more…]
Attribute Charts
A great skill for students to practice is comparing and contrasting attributes of various organisms. After reading a book about an insect (or a page from The World Never Sleeps), students can answer yes or no to attributes such as
- Does it have wings?
- Does it eat plants?
- Does it eat other insects?
- Does it make noises, such as chirping or buzzing?
Pollination Lesson
If you want to teach your class how pollination works, try this lesson I wrote for the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago: Click here for PDF
Live Creatures in the Classroom
Non-insects that are fairly easy to catch are:
- earthworms
- roly-poly bugs
Insects and non-insects to avoid:
- bees/wasps/hornets
- cockroaches
- termites
- spiders
