Summertime, insects are everywhere. The buzzing bee, the distant sound of chirping crickets or cicadas, the mosquitoes that undoubtedly love to kiss the kids. The ants that children love to squish, the ladybugs that settle on the arm of a scared child. Oh, how we love the summer time or not. We have been finding lots of Cicadas and other dead insects. So, we decided to have the children investigate their body parts.
Head | Thorax | Abdomen – the different section of insects. Oh, then there are the eyes, wings, antennas, and legs.
The children were not been afraid to measure, smell, dissect dead insects and learn more about them.
The investigation help with mathematics skills as the children measure, compare and contrast the sizes of varied insects.
This is a large wasp found by Miss Ellen and taken to the daycare and added to our collection of insects.
Different kind of bees was collected including a drone bee. Again these insects were dead so presumably, they were harmless.
This cricket was found in a spiders web. Did you know spiders eat crickets? 
Cicadas have been turning up everywhere. Our activities with cicadas include their metamorphosis from the ground to the flying stage. I grew up in Jamaica and we have some insects similar to cicada we call Jimmy long Gail. I remember catching them with grass straws but never did I observe their metamorphosis. 
This activity with the cicadas has informative not only to the children, I myself learned a lot from the experience and hunting. See our other post on Cicadas.
Hands-on learning is the best way for children to learn. Miss Sue:)
Leave a Reply