Preschool insect unit activities

We’ve been doing a lot of insect-themed learning lately. I’ve shared several posts so far with ideas for learning about insects. You can find those posts on my insects unit study page. This is another post highlighting some of the many insect-themed activities we’ve done in recent weeks.

Reading books

Of course, we read several books about insects.

The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle

Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! by Bob Barner

And we read one book specifically about the butterfly life cycle:

From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman

We didn’t read this next book, but it looks like it would have been a good fit since it is specifically about the Painted Lady species of butterflies we raised.

Painted Lady Butterflies by Donna Schaffer 

Butterfly life cycle

As part of our learning about butterflies, I wanted the kids to be able to identify and put in sequence the four stages of the butterfly life cycle. I purchased these great Butterfly Life Cycle Stages Characters and had the kids identify them and match them to these wonderful Insect Lore Life Cycle Matching Cards from The Helpful Garden.

Do-A-Dot Insect Printables

The kids also enjoyed using our Do A Dot Art Markers to complete some of my Do-A-Dot Insect Printables.

We talked about the names of all eight insects in the pack to continue to help the kids identify various insects. Plus, the kids worked on one-to-one correspondence at the same time!

Insect-themed Montessori-style trays

Next, I prepared several insect-themed trays to go on our new Montessori shelves (hopefully I’ll post about the new shelves soon!).

With this tray, the kids use the tongs to sort the ladybug and firefly mini-insect erasers into their individual spaces on each of our circular trays. This tray works on fine motor skills and sorting.

This tray uses a grid and the mini-insect erasers for the kids to work on patterns by following my patterns or creating their own.

I found these butterfly erasers at the dollar store a while back, and they are perfect for working on color matching and fine motor skills. The kids have to find the matching wing and put it back on the butterfly.

These butterfly clip cards are from 2 Teaching Mommies. Children count the number of butterflies on the card, then use the clothespin to clip the correct number at the bottom of the card.

I found these foam butterfly shapes at the dollar store several months ago and just knew they would come in handy for something someday. 🙂 I set up this jeweled butterfly symmetry activity. The kids need to use the jewels provided in the basket to make a pattern on the right wing of the butterfly that is symmetrical to the pattern on the left wing.

Singing songs

Samantha from Refusing to Drink the Cool-Aid left a great tip when commenting on another post to “Head, Thorax, Abdomen” to the tune of “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes.” We did this and it has really helped XGirl, who is extremely musical, to learn the body parts. She has actually sung the song so much that QBoy has been asking her to stop. 🙂

Here are the lyrics we used (sung to the tune of “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”:

Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen
Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen
One, two, three, four, five, six legs
That’s what an insect has, insect has

More insect learning resources

Insect printables from Gift of Curiosity:

• Insects Printables Pack
• Insects Do-a-Dot Printables
• Insects Anatomy Game
• Insects Grid Games
• Ant Printables Pack
• Ant 3-Part Cards
• Ant Do-a-Dot Printables
• Ladybug Do-a-Dot Printables
• Bee Do-a-Dot Printables
• Bee Sudoku
• Butterfly Do-a-Dot Printables