Spring Brings Insects to our Classroom

So it's spring, I think, yesterday we had sleet and snow in PA.  I can't seem to put away my winter clothes but it's April so in our classroom it is spring.  There are lots of exciting lessons and activities happening.  The biggest change in our room is that we have insects moving in; and no, we do not need an exterminator, they are here on purpose!  I am not an insect lover by any means.  At the trainings to teach about insects I was the one jumping away from the table and shrieking when they moved.  I am getting better and I'm lucky that a lot of second graders don't mind getting up close and personal with insects.  They really enjoy having living things in our classroom and it really does a lot for their motivation.  So we start out with mealworms and have the students tell us what insects need to live and grow.  Then they build a habitat for them in a vial and observe their life cycle.  I was surprised to see what these turn into.  The next insect to arrive are ants in an ant farm and we learn about their different body parts and roles in the colony.  After that, we get crickets and build a terrarium out of recycled materials for them to live in.  This is really cool for the students because the crickets are very active and there are other living things like grass growing in the habitat.  This year we will be building our terrariums on Earth Day!  Our final insect is no surprise it's the caterpillar and we watch them turn into painted lady butterflies and then release them into our butterfly garden outside.  The students record all their observations in their science journal and by the end they understand the life cycle of an insect.
  In addition, to insects in our science center we also tie in insects to our language arts curriculum and character building lessons.  One of my favorite mini units to teach is on bullying using Hey, Little Ant.  This is a cute song and story to teach about caring for all living creatures and to help students identify their own bias towards each other.  We start by watching the performance of the song by Phil and Hannah Hoose then we act out the roles ourselves and discuss the similarities and differences between the boy and the ant using a Venn Diagram.  I have several writing activities for the students to participate in to get them thinking.  First, I have them answer the question, should the boy squish the ant and why.  They have to give me three good reasons for their answer using transitions words and complete sentences.  Then, I have them draw a creature that has no feelings and write how they know it cannot feel.  This leads to some great discussions on stereotyping and assumptions.  Finally, we end the unit by tying in bullying and standing up for each other and ourselves by expressing our feelings in a constructive way like the ant did.  I teach my students to use a form called a bug and a wish.  It's a simple template that says 'It bugs me when...' 'I wish you would...' and allows students to open a dialog to solve their problems.
  In guided reading, I have several nonfiction books on insects that the students can read and practice using text features and note taking.  In readers theater, we perform the Little Pollinators which teaches about how insects pollinate a garden.  A great video to go along with this theme is Reading Rainbow's Insects.  The students get a chance to see a stick bug, a leaf bug and a African Hissing Cockroach.  Magic School Bus also has some good books on insects for shared reading.  
  Students can learn more about insects on these kid friendly sites: 

• FOSSweb 
• Build Your Own Caterpillar  
• Sid the Science Kid Games

Happy Spring!                                                                                                           
 -Mrs. Barcavage