🐛🦋🐞 Bugs
I hope you enjoy the Bugs Lesson Plan! Here is a quick overview:
Bug Hunt - All About Bugs Printable Book
Victoria Bug Museum - Virtual Field Trip
Adopt A Caterpillar
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Storyboard
Butterfly Directed Drawing & Writing
Lady Bug Number Line
Draw Your Favorite Bugs
Edible Bugs Around the World
Butterfly Life Cycle - STEM Craft
Microscope Exploration
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Sensory Play
All About Bugs Yoga
Bug Movement Dice
And more...
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Enjoy! Tiff
🐛🦋🐞 Bugs
Bug Hunt - Printable Book
Go on a Bug Hunt and learn all about bugs with this simple lesson plan. Learn about the importance of bugs, insect anatomy, pollinators, predators, recyclers, edible bugs and dangerous bugs. Perfect for kids that are curious about entomology. Includes a ten page printable book, scavenger hunt and 24 vocabulary cards.
Bug Museum - Virtual Field Trip
Start your week off with a field trip! Visit the Victoria Bug Zoo with River and Wilder as your guides. This was a great way to see kids interacting with real bugs. My girls loved seeing other kids touching and holding the bugs.
Adopt A Caterpillar
One of the most amazing things you can show your students is the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly. It is truly fascinating to be able to see the change first hand.
We got lucky and found several types of caterpillars in our garden. We found several green ones and five orange and black spiky caterpillars that turned out to be Gulf Fritillary Butterfly that eats passion fruit leaves. We were able to keep the display up in our homeschool area and watches as three butterflies emerged from their chrysalis! Then we got to release them. It was incredible!
If you aren’t lucky enough to happen upon some caterpillars, you can get caterpillars shipped to you.
English Language Arts
Very Hungry Caterpillar Storyboard
Storyboarding is a great way to improve recall and presentation skills. Students draw or write about the major plot points in the story. Then they tell the story in their own words.
We like to use our magnetic white board to storyboard using a combination of magnets and pictures we draw ourselves to tell the story.
Supplies: Eric Carle Magnets, magnetic white board, Very Hungry Caterpillar book, dry erase pens.
Butterfly Directed Drawing and Writing
By: Kindergarten Mom
This is a super fun way to combine art and writing. Practice pencil control while following the directions to draw the butterflies.
Then write about your butterfly using the keywords on the side as a guide.
Reading Lessons
There are only two resources I like to make sure I include on each week’s lesson plan, Prodigies Music (below) and Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. This book has thousands of 5 star reviews on Amazon for a reason. It’s an effective, no-prep way to teach reading. At the beginning of Kindergarten, my daughter was just starting to be comfortable with Bob Books and sounding out three letter words. Now she can pretty much read anything and we are starting to take turns reading chapter books.
The lessons are short (15-20min), easy to grasp and sequential. The entire lesson is scripted and color coded so it’s fool proof, just read the words in pink. It also is designed for kids that don’t know their alphabet or letter sounds yet, so you can start right away. My two and a half year old knows three letter sounds and is now on lesson five. Their claim is that after completing all 100 lessons your child will be able to read at a 2nd grade level!
Math - Counting and Cardinality
Lady Bug Number Line
Create your own number line by adding dots to lady bugs. I used my 2” circle punch to make it easy to cut out the ladybugs on red cardstock, then I cut heads out of black cardstock. We used black pipe cleaners for the antennae and hung it up on twine.
My daughter assembled the lady bugs and then added dots on each one. She hung them up and then thought… “They need some leaves.” So she added a few leaves for them to climb on.
This is a great way to visualize doubles so encourage students to write their dots in a pattern that is easy to see.
Supplies: circle punch (any size), red, green and black cardstock, black pipe cleaners, sharpie marker, twine, and glue.
Bug Jar Addition
By: The Measured Mom
Practice addition facts by placing bugs in the jar. Use the free printable placemat to place your bugs then record the equations you discover.
Art and Music
Draw Your Favorite Bugs
By: Art For Kids Hub
We ❤️ Art For Kids Hub! We couldn’t decide what to draw this week, so we spent a whole afternoon drawing bugs! They have cartoon versions of bugs too, but my daughter liked the realistic versions.
If you have a kid that hates practicing handwriting, try drawing instead. It helps build the same skills and will help improve their pencil control.
Art Hub has made my daughter a very confident young artist. We can’t get enough of these.
Prodigies Music
Do…Re…Mi…
We love Prodigies! Prodigies Music is simply an incredible curriculum for teaching music. Their curriculum is designed to develop a sense of pitch with easy to use desk bells that don’t require any tuning. They also teach piano, recorder and ukulele. Their subscription includes everything you can think of 450+ videos, worksheets, free bell mats, sheet music all color coded so it’s super easy to learn. If you don’t have an instrument they have a bunch of rhythm focused content that doesn’t require an instrument. They even have a free bell app that I use with my toddler when my oldest is practicing.
They have a free trial and discounts for annual memberships! Great deal! You can even check out some of their videos for free on YouTube.
Science - Bugs
Butterfly Life Cycle STEM Craft
We love STEM + Craft activities! Teach the life cycle of a butterfly by putting the stages of a butterfly's metamorphosis in the correct sequence in this folding STEM Craft. Use the worksheet as an overview of the different stages, then use it as a guide to complete the craft.
Inspect an Insect
By: SciShow Kids
Learn what types of bugs are insect and how to identify them in this great video. Learn the names of the three main insect body parts and meet some cool insects.
SciShow Kids has a bunch of other great videos about bugs:
Microscope Exploration
First, go on a bug hunt! Try to find as many bugs as you can, then examine them close up. Observe the hairs on a spiders legs or the anatomy of an ant.
I found this awesome digital microscope that was incredibly easy for my kids to use by themselves. We have a traditional microscope too, but I found it hard for young kids to use. What I love about the digital version is that it has a screen and you don’t need to mess with glass slides. Just put anything on the tray below, focus and everyone can see what you are looking at. I picked this one because it has an SD card so you can take pictures and it’s PC an Mac compatible.
Supplies: digital microscope, magnifying glass (if you don’t have a microscope, this is a great alternative) or biological compound microscope (if you go this route, I recommend getting prepared slides), real bugs (this is a great option if you live in the city).
Social Studies
Edible Bugs Around the World
Everyday millions of people around the world eat bugs. In other cultures it’s perfectly normal to eat bugs. Our ancestors ate bugs.
First, your kids will love watching these real kids eat bugs (video by HiHo Kids). If you are feeling adventurous, get these bug lollipops to have your own bug taste test.
Then watch this awesome TedEd video that aims to answer the question “Should We Eat Bugs”. Learn about the history of eating bugs and what types of bugs are eaten in other countries.
Sensory Play
Very Hungry Caterpillar Sensory Bin
I just love sensory play based on books. My girls and I had so much fun putting this bin together.
We used green rice from a previous bin and my daughters helped me line up the wooden fruit to match the story. Then we added some rocks, twigs and trees. And for the final touch we added tools like a shovel, bug net and bug catcher.
Filler: rice dyed green (recipe here)
Supplies: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Busy Book (includes figurines), Explorer Set (includes bugs, bug net, bug cards, magnifying glass and more), rocks, wooden fruit, sticks, trees, wood scoops, wooden tongs and shovel.
Physical Education
Kids Yoga All About BUGS
By: Cosmic Kids Yoga
Learn all about ants 🐜, stick bugs, spiders 🕷& bees 🐝 as you get your body moving. I hope your students enjoy this compilation of bug filled yoga adventures!
Bug Movement Dice
By: Life Over C’s
Move like a bug with this fun printable dice. Just roll the dice and do the action on the dice. We like to play this with a number dice so we know how many times to do each action. Such as crawl like a caterpillar for 3 seconds or flap like a butterfly 5 times.
Books We Love
- Little Kids First Big Book of Bugs
- On Beyond Bugs!: All About Insects - Dr. Seuss Learning Library
- From Caterpillar to Butterfly - Let’s Read and Find out Science
Don’t have the budget or space to get more books? The library has been pretty great for us so far, but they are sometimes out of the more popular books. One place that you can always count on to find great books is Epic Books! Try Epic Basic for FREE! You can find awesome read to me books for free, Unlimited plan includes access to 40,000+ books!
Know of any other awesome Bug themed resources? Please comment below!
Do you know anyone else that would enjoy these free weekly lesson plans? Get them on the list!
