Study of a Bug’s Life: Insect Life Stages

The next stop on our Week of Bugs tour was a study of the insect life stages. I read in God’s Design for Life: World of Animals book about complete and incomplete metamorphosis and the different stages of the process. While I was reading, we illustrated the whole process with our very cool plastic insect life stages.

study of insect metamorphosis

As we read about eggs, I had the kids find all of the eggs from each of the different insect sets. We had a butterfly egg, ant eggs, beetle eggs, praying mantis soft and hard egg cases, and ladybug eggs.

We looked at the praying mantis nymphs and talked about the three stages of incomplete metamorphosis.

When we read about larvae, the kids found all of the plastic insect larvae and lined them up for me. Then, we talked about pupae and the chrysalis.

Last, I had the kids each choose two insects and take me through the complete (or incomplete) metamorphosis. Once again, the plastic insects made teaching and drilling so much fun!

study of insect life stages
Metamorphosis of a Darkling Beetle

 

study of butterfly life stages
Metamorphosis of a Painted Lady Butterfly

We wrapped up the week with a look at arachnids (spiders and scorpions) and, on the last day, a video about the monarch butterfly.

It was absolutely as much fun as I had hoped it would be. And really, though I had originally planned for our lessons to be once a week for a month, I think it turned out even better to have done it all in one week. Now to go catch some arthropods!

Study of a Bug’s Life: Insect Parts

Our nature study has finally taken us to arthropods. I’ve been eagerly waiting for this all summer. I love bugs! Even spiders. I find them all fascinating. And I’ve been chomping at the bit to share my fascination with the kids. However, with all that life has brought along this summer, my month’s worth of plans became a week’s worth of bugs. Still, the kids learned a lot, and we had tons of fun in the process.

insect study for young children

For our study, I used God’s Design for Life: World of Animals book and an old favorite that my mom read to us when I was a kid (the exact book! My mom saved it all these years) All Nature Sings. I used these books as our read-alouds. We began each day reading the Beginner section of the World of Animals chapter. I adapt this as I feel the need. Some days, the beginner section doesn’t cover all I want to cover, so I read the intermediate section for older children. Other days, the intermediate section reads so advanced that I revert back to the beginner section. On most days, however, I can read the Beginner section and add the bolded vocabulary from the intermediate; it’s perfect for us. Then, we’ll read a couple of “bug” stories from All Nature Sings, a book that shows children God’s design and purpose for all those pesky critters.

Because of our animal classifications that we’ve been doing all year in geography, the kids are pretty familiar with the idea of arthropods including insects and spiders. So we began our study by taking a closer look.

Insect parts

On our first day, we learned the parts of an insect. My mom blessed us with some really fun plastic critters that made taking a closer  look much less intimidating. We got out our plastic bugs, counted their legs, and named their three body parts. Then, we lined up all of the bugs. The kids took turns working down the line and naming the body parts on each insect (head, thorax, abdomen). It was a fun way to work in repetitive drill.

insect study for young children

 

insect study for young children

We left a plastic ant on the table that day so that the kids could name all the parts for Dad when he came home. Even Middlest was able to name off head, thorax, and abdomen.

The kids loved playing with the insects. And to prove to you how well this plastic insect concept worked, here’s the contrast. We went outside later in the week on a bug hunt. I found a dead cicada and called the kids to come take a closer look, count legs, name body parts, etc. Oldest took one look and ran the other way. I finally convinced him that it was dead and harmless; he came just close enough to see what I wanted to point out to him.

Maybe one day I’ll get my timid explorers to hold a real insect. But for now, I’m counting my blessings and thanking God for plastic.