For the Classroom
Insects are interesting! Make your students go buggy with fun projects that teach them all about these tiny creatures. You can keep bugs in your daily routine the whole year through by having a morning or midday wiggle where the kids get to move like bugs. How do their attitudes about bugs change over the year?
If you want students to get over fears of bugs and the perception that they are gross, you need to get over any of your own. Be aware that how you respond to bugs sets an example for your students.
Insect Hide and Seek
Bugs use camouflage to hide from predators. One example is the walking stick, which looks like the twigs and branches around it. Play insect hide-and-seek by having your students design their own bugs that could hide around your classroom. You can have them make the bugs out of paper or have them create three-dimensional bugs with clay. They can make them the color of the desk, or wall, or a poster on the wall. Take turns having small groups hide the bugs around the room and then giving another small group two or three minutes to find as many as they can.
Ant Farming
Ants are so abundant they're some of the easiest bugs to capture and observe. Here are some interesting facts about ants to get students intrigued before you begin your colony.
Ants' legs are very strong so they can run very quickly. If a person could run as fast for his size as an ant can, he could run as fast as a horse.
Ants can lift twenty times their own body weight. How much would you be able to lift if you could do the same?
An ant brain has about 250,000 brain cells; a human brain has 100 billion. One ant has much less brain power, but an entire colony of ants put together has the same brain capacity as a human.
Learn more about the amazing ant by starting an ant farm. You can either buy an ant farm through a pet store or online or you can excavate a native ant colony. You can find ants almost everywhere. To make your own colony, simply find an active colony, dig it up with a shovel, place the ants and surrounding material in a large container or bag until you get back to the classroom, and then place them in a large, clear plastic container or glass aquarium. It's optimal if the habitat is about the same size as what you've dug up. Let the ants adjust to their new home for a few days. You can feed them food scraps like peanut butter, jelly, yogurt, fruit scraps, or even dead insects. Be sure you keep the container tightly enclosed so the ants don't escape and infest your room. If you have a safe space outdoors, it might be best to keep it there. Also, be sure to find out if any of your students are allergic to ant bites.
Ant colonies have different rooms, called chambers, that are connected by tunnels. They're just like human buildings with rooms and hallways. Can you find the nursery, food queen, eggs, and trash chambers in your ant colony? Keep an ant journal next to your farm and write down observations each day. Is the population growing? How is the farm changing?
