Insects Theme Unit Plans

Last theme of the year!

Goals:
Know the difference between spiders and insects
Name at least 5 insects
Explain an insects life cycle (complete metamorphosis)
Name a 3 ways bugs are beneficial

Monday: Introduction & Overview
Read Bugs Are Insects .
Read Bugs (Reading Rainbow Book).
Classify insects in different groups.
Make an Alphabug Book.*

Tuesday: Butterflies & Life Cycle
Read My, Oh My--A Butterfly!: All About Butterflies (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library).
Read Waiting for Wings.
Make Metamorphosis Model.*
Complete Butterfly Diary.*

Wednesday: Butterflies & Migration
Read Monarch Butterfly
Read Isabel's House of Butterflies (Sierra Club Books (Sierra))
Map monarch migration.
Learn symmetry by creating a Wing Design.*

Thursday: Insect Anatomy
Complete Insect Body Parts.*
Sort insects from non-insects by doing Insect Inspection.*
Discuss why spiders are not insects.
Amazing Insect Mouth activity from Incredible Insects (Ranger Rick's Naturescope).
Create an accurate insect (with head, thorax, abdomen, and 6 legs) with various materials.

Friday: Bees & Ladybugs & Beneficial Insects
Read Honey in a Hive (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2).
Read The Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive.
Read The Ladybug and Other Insects .
Do Pollen Play activity.*
Go on an insect hunt.

Monday: No School

Tuesday: Ants & Social Structure
Read Are You an Ant? .
Read Ant Cities .
Read Two Bad Ants.
Go on an ant hunt to fill an ant farm.
Discuss the different jobs ants have in an ant colony. Compare them to human communities.
Introduce scientific method by performing an experiment offering different types of food to ants and observing the results.

Wednesday: Mosquitoes & Pests
Read Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale.

Thursday: Field trip to the Natural History Museum

Friday: Finish up, Clean up and Pack up
Celebration dinner!

*Activities from Lakeshore Insects Activity Tub.

Other resources:
Magic School Bus - Bugs, Bugs, BugsBugs Are Insects
Insect (DK Eyewitness Books)
I Didn't Know That Some Bugs Glow in the Dark
Insect Defense (DVD) by Ron Goor