Insect / Bug Lesson Plans for Preschoolers
If there is one thing that preschoolers and kindergarten children will always be interested in, it’s bug lesson plans, or simply a preschool bug/insect theme and fun activities to teach them about different insects and bugs and what they do, what they eat and what they look like.
This bug lesson plan & theme idea below is such a fun pre k lesson plan idea for children, as there is a lot of exploring and discussing when it comes to bugs and insects.
There are a huge variety of common insects and bugs that children may or may not be familiar with. You can now take the time to present a preschool bug and insect theme that children will learn and have fun with.
This lesson plan about insects in preschool will help children to learn about bugs/insects using a variety of fun and educational activities and ideas for learning. You can add any ideas you wish to build on this fun educational activity.
Ideas for Insect & Bug Theme Lesson Plans:
You can use the simple ideas and activity suggestions below to begin to build your lesson plan for the children. Be sure to add your own related ideas and activities and have fun learning about bugs.
Get Your Bug Lesson Plan Started:
Always try to make sure you have a variety of pictures of bugs and insects you can correctly identify posted around the room. Find full color pictures and black and white pictures of different common insects and bugs that you can teach the children about.
Tip: Old magazines, newspapers and old full color calendars are great to look through for these pictures. You can also search online for simple pictures which you can use for teaching.
Library Books & Puzzles About Bugs:
Be sure to include lots of books in the library with real life pictures of bugs. Another great learning activity to have as well is puzzles with pictures of insects.
Sensory Activities:
You can visit a discount retail store or store like a dollar store and try to find small rubber or plastic bug toys.
Use these bugs and insect toys and fill the bottom of a plastic sensory tub with sticks, sand or gravel.
The children can play with the plastic bugs and insects in the bottom of the sensory bin. They will love playing in this bug environment.
Circle Time Activities:
You can ask the pre k children what kind of bugs they see in their yards, around their home or in the neighborhood around them everyday, and help them to identify the different bugs and find pictures of them.
You can talk with the kids and talk about what things bugs like to eat. (eg.) leaves-caterpillars, dirt-worms, other bugs-spiders, human food-ants, bees-pollen and sweet things etc.
Ask Simple Questions About Bugs & Insects:
- Why are bees important?
- What do bees do when they land on a flower?
- Where do they take the pollen?
- What happens to it?
Keeping explanations simple will go along way instead of trying to get to detailed and making things too complicated. For example you could keep things simple by saying the following;
“When a bee lands on a flower it collects the pollen up and carries it to the beehive, when the bee gets to the beehive it puts it in the honeycomb and turns it into honey” – you could have a jar of honey with you and have the preschoolers & young children taste it
You can discuss with the preschool children how we need bugs and different insects around us, and that we shouldn’t step on bugs and kill them when we see them. We want to leave bugs and insects alone. We can observe what they do. Maybe one day we can try and follow it home?
- Talk about the good things that different bugs and insects do and how they work.
- Which types of bugs have wings and fly?
- Which bugs just crawl?
- Which types of bugs jump?
Science Ideas about Bugs & Insects:
Some learning resource stores have little science kits with kid friendly microscopes. Some of these kits have already made up slides with bugs and other things in them for the preschoolers to look at and observe and discover new things.
You can count how many legs certain bugs have, are there lots, or just a few legs?
You can then make a chart with all the names of the bugs down the left and have a little line represent each leg.
- Which bug has the most lines?
- That bug has the most legs.
- Which bug has the least number of lines?
- That bug has less legs.
- How many bugs have wings?
Bug Theme Art Ideas:
Make some egg carton caterpillars in the pre k art area. Simply cut an egg carton in half (there should be 6 egg cups attached-or you can make them shorter if you wish)
Glue some google-y eyes on the front. Maybe use some short pipe cleaner pieces for antennas and paint the egg cups different colors. You now have a cute, colorful caterpillar.
Bug Songs for Your Lesson Plan:
Other songs about bugs that could be used are ‘spider on the floor’
Finger Play Activities about Bugs/Insects
If you are looking for additional bug/insect ideas and activities to add to your bug lesson plan them check out Itsy bitsy Bumble Bee & Baby Bumble Bee finger play and action song ideas you can implement in your theme. You can also use the Itsy Bitsy Spider activity.
Bug Theme Games & Activities
Any insect/bug related idea or activity can become part of your insect theme. Check out this fun, Lady Bug drag and drop number matching game.