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Bug Theme

When we study bugs, there are several activities I include in an effort to meet every student's ability and interests along with multiple curricular standards. I bought several bags of plastic bugs at my local Dollar Tree and also gathered a few other supplies and we are ready to look at bugs and investigate them-how many legs do they have? How many body parts do they have? What other characteristics do they have? Then we sort them-insects or not insects. Count how many are in each category. Take some time outdoors as well looking for insects and allowing the students to move in larger ways. Run through the grass but also get down and crawl. Take magnifying lenses out with you and see how many insects can be found.
On another day we sort the bugs by color. We identify each color and again count how many bugs are in each category. We use tweezers to sort the bugs so that we are working on our fine motor skills as well. Write the color words where the children can easily see them.  Insect names can also be added. Once the words are displayed, you can use them to work on any number of literacy activities such as beginning and ending sounds, rhyming words, or syllables. Point out the difference between letters and words and show how we move from left to right when we read and write.
Later in the week, we practice counting and more visual discrimination at center time with something called "Bug Stew." Each child takes a recipe card and adds the ingredients from their card into the bowl before stirring and giving the other student a turn. Play continues until every recipe card has been used or the ingredients are gone. This "Stew" game can be played for almost any theme but for our Bug Theme, the ingredients include objects like ladybugs, worms, ants, spiders and flies.
Some bug books that we read include:
*"The Very Hungry Caterpillar"
*"The Grouchy Ladybug"
*"The Very Lonely Firefly"
*"The Very Quiet Cricket"
*"Ten Little Ladybugs"
*"Some Bugs"
*"Waiting for Wings"
*"The Very Busy Spider"
*"Old Black Fly"
*"Ten Little Caterpillars"

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