PROCEDURE:
Next,
display a diagram of an insect; note their 6 legs, 3 body
parts (write “head,” “thorax” and
“abdomen” on diagram or board), antennae, eyes,
sometimes wings and hair. Ask, “Why isn't a spider
an insect?” (It has 8 legs). Show the students
the figures one at a time.
Basic facts:
Almost _ of all animals are insects (show pie-chart
figure depicting relative number of existing plant and
animals species, with insect piece colored in); ask the
children if this shape looks like something else they're
familiar with, something people use to tell time with (a
clock with the hands at 10 and 3); ask the children which
portion of the pie is bigger: the insect portion or all
the other portions combined.
Insect extremes:
There are insects living in every different place of
the planet earth. At least 5 different insects live in
the coldest place on earth: Antarctica. Write
“Antarctica” on the board and ask the children
to say, “Antarctica.” Ask if anyone has heard
of that place before and if anyone can point to where it
is on the globe. These insects that live in the cold are
all pretty small insects and most of them live on other
animals, like birds and seals. One of them is the flea
(show picture). There is only one known insect that lives
in the ocean – well, not actually in, but on (show
picture of water strider).
Dispelling fears by noting similarities between
insects and humans:
Next, pick up roach with hand and, holding it, ask the
students if they can name any good things insects might
do for us (only help if they can't think of anything:
pollination, honey, clothing by silk moths).
We also have some things in common with insects:
1) we're both hairy
2) we both have eyes
3) we both have eardrums, although an insect's eardrum
can be anywhere on its body (for instance, on the abdomen
of a moth and a type of grasshopper, and on the forelegs
of the cricket)
4) just like us, insects have the five senses we do.
Ask if anyone name the other three senses besides the
ones we already talked about (sight and hearing). There
are five senses: taste (although sometimes insects taste
with their feet, antennae, or rear end), touch, smell,
sight, and hearing.
5) some insects live in big families, sort of like if
you were to live with all of your aunts and uncles,
cousins, and nieces and nephews. And just like us in our
family, each insect has a job it has to do, like provide
food for everyone in the family or take care of the
younger ones. So even though you might be scared of an
insect, most insects won't hurt you because they're busy
doing their job. See, the other facilitator is holding a
cockroach, and the cockroach doesn't mind. If it did, it
would hiss at her.
Then pass out live and pinned insects. Tell the
students not to tap the glass or cages; don't hurt the
insects; don't remove the pinned insects from the boxes.
Ask students if anyone can find an insect without 6 legs
(Some insects' forelegs are shorter than the others, such
as on the brush-footed butterflies). Can anyone find one
without 3 segments (Some insects appear to have two body
parts rather than three because they first two segments
– head and thorax—are fused together so
tightly)? Does anyone have an insect without wings? (Some
insects don't need wings to move around, or they might
grow wings later in their life).
Now, remove the pinned insects before distributing the
clay. Distribute a portion of the clay on paper plates to
each student. Tell the students not to eat or throw the
clay. Tell the students that we're all going to make a
model of an ant from clay. Just like we live in families,
ants live in big groups called colonies. We're going to
make an ant colony. Facilitators should make a model
along with the children so they can see how to do it. You
may distribute toothpicks for the children to make
distinctive marks on their ant, but remind them to be
careful with the toothpicks since they are dangerous.
Tell the students you will collect the toothpicks handed
out when they are done using them. The clay need not be
fired in a kiln, but allowed to air dry; therefore,
scoring of the clay is not necessary for the attachment
of appendages. As you begin forming your ant, ask the
children how many body parts and legs we need to make.
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EXTENSION
ACTIVITIES:
Leave
mealworms in class with instructions for students to make
written observations of the mealworms' activities,
appearance, food consumption; students may supplement
written observations with drawings; have teacher collect
their data for our review. Assign the students
homework of locating and drawing as many bugs they can
find as possible in and around their house; suggest they
keep track of where they found their insect, such as by
writing or drawing “house,” where they find the
insect, such as in the shade, sunlight, soil, near a
plant, etc.
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