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Bright Ideas for Little Learners

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spring, Tot School

Tot School: Insects

April 4, 2017

Tons of insect themed activities and ideas. Weekly plan includes books, literacy, math, science, art, sensory bins, and more! Perfect for tot school, preschool, or kindergarten.

 Isn’t it funny how little ones are just curious about everything and totally don’t have that grossed out reaction that we have as adults? I have to admit bugs creep me out, so I was totally not excited for this week’s theme. I tried my best to contain my feelings about insects so Madelynn could have fun reading and exploring and it was a great week.

Tons of insect themed activities and ideas. Weekly plan includes books, literacy, math, science, art, sensory bins, and more! Perfect for tot school, preschool, or kindergarten.

**This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. View our full disclosure policy here.**

    So here were our plans for the Insect theme:

  And here is what we actually did:

5 great books to read aloud for an insect theme. Perfect for tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten.

Our favorite books this week were:

The Grouchy Ladybug By Eric Carle

Ants By Margaret Hall

Grasshoppers By Margaret Hall

Bumble Bees By Fran Howard

These paper plate ladybugs turned out so cute and incorporated lots of fine motor practice. Great for an insect theme in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

 Paper Plate Ladybugs: 

These little cuties were easy and quick to prep. I try to let Madelynn try out lots of different tools for painting including different shapes and texture brushes. First Madelynn painted the whole plate red with a foam brush. Then I gave her a circle shaped foam brush to add black spots. After letting the lady bug dry a bit, she glued on the paper shapes that I cut out to complete her ladybug.
Find the assorted paint brush pack here and the tempera paint I use here.

We LOVE using dot markers for fine motor practice so these dot marker ants were a perfect activity for our insect theme. We worked on one to one correspondence and color recognition too. Great for tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Dot Marker Ants: 

  I whipped up these little dot marker ants for Madelynn to practice one to one correspondence and color matching.  After she stamped the spots she wanted to color in the words at the bottom of each page as well. Find the dot markers we love here.

This bug catcher game was such a fun way to get our fine motor practice in with an insect theme. Great for tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Bug Catcher Game: 

Madelynn is just starting to understand how to take turns and play games so when I found this Color Bug Catcher Game from Learning Resources, I knew it would be a perfect quick game this week. We actually play it a lot for a family fun night activity with our other board games so I might have to grab a few more of the 10 minute games from Learning Resources. I love that they include the fine motor tools and work on basic concepts like counting, colors, shapes, letters, and more.

Fingerprint Bugs:

  Instead of stamp pads, we chose to use tempera paint to make these fingerprint bugs so that they would be bright and colorful. After stamping lots of critters, Madelynn used black colored pencil to draw legs, wings, and antennae to complete each insect.

This build a bug craft was a fun open ended project for our insect theme. The perfect way to get creative and build fine motor skills with an insect theme. Great for tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

 Build a Bug: 

I tried to leave this activity pretty open ended, so I cut out lots of different shapes and colors and let Madelynn create her own insects. When she finished she proudly told me that she made a bee, caterpillar and ladybug.

Learning is more fun when it involves movement! Practice stomping, running, jumping, and identifying shapes with this stomp the bug gross motor activity. Great for an insect theme in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Stomp the Bug: 

  Now that it is nice out sidewalk chalk is our jam.  It’s seriously so easy for me to come up with fun movement/learning games just by drawing on the ground. For stomp the bug I drew lots of shapes, added legs, antennae, and faces. Then I yelled out a shape for Madeynn to stomp. She also had fun seeing how far she could jump and if she could make it to the next bug with just one jump.

Bop the Bugs:

  What kid doesn’t love playing the keep a balloon in the air game? If I ever need an activity to keep Madelynn busy I can count on balloons to do the job.  For this game I blew up 3 balloons then drew stripes, antennae, and faces on each one to create balloon bugs.  Then I gave Madelynn a fly swatter and she tried to hit the bugs to keep them in the air.

Learning is more fun when it involves movement! Practice running, swinging, and identifying numbers with this swat the number gross motor activity. Great for an insect theme in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Swat the Number: 

We ordered these adorable fly swatters for our next 2 games, that will also probably come in handy this summer 😉 For swat the number I wrote numbers 1-12 on the ground then called out a number for Madelynn to swat. Numbers 11 and 12 were tough but it was time to add a little challenge.  I also had her try to swat all the numbers in order starting at one and counting up as she went.
Find the fly swatters here.

Learning is more fun when it involves movement! Practice running, swinging, and identifying letters with this swat the letter gross motor activity. Great for an insect theme in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

 Swat the Letter: 

I am all about recycling the same activities in different ways so for swat the letter I wrote the lowercase letters in Madelynn’s name then called out a letter for her to swat. lowercase letters are a bit of a little challenge so I only included the ones in her name.  I also had her try to swat the letters in the order they are in her name.
Find the fly swatters here.

Learning is more fun when it involves movement! Learn about pollination and demonstrate how it works with this bee polination gross motor activity. Great for an insect theme in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Bee Pollination: 

After reading about bees…and watching The Bee Movie, haha, I thought it would be fun to act out the process of pollination. I started by wrapping Madelynn with tape sticky side out for her “bee stripes.” Then she tried to stick “pollen” balls from one flower bucket on her belly and transfer them to the other flower bucket across the yard. (I used painters tape because I couldn’t find our duct tape, but I would definitely suggest stronger tape so the balls don’t keep falling off. Although that did add an extra element of difficulty!)

These yummy snacks are perfect for an insect theme in tot school, preschool, or kindergarten!

Insect Snacks:

Ladybug fruit cup: Turn a jello fruit cup upside down. Use a sharpie to draw on spots, a head and antennae.

Ants on a log: Celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins, just like my momma used to make 😉

Dragonfly: More celery with peanut butter, add 2 pretzel wings (regular shaped would probably work better, but we use what we have around here!) and m&ms for eyes

Ladybugs: Cut strawberries in half, melt milk chocolate chips in small bag and pipe on the lady bug head and spots

Bumble bee Snack: Cut grapes in half.  Alternate rows of Kix cereal and purple grapes. Add 2 pretzel thins for wings and a mini rice cake for a head. Use pretzel sticks for antennae. Add candy eyes and draw on an icing mouth.

We had so much fun learning about insects and sorting by color with this sort the color bugs sensory bin. Great for an insect theme in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Sort the Color Bugs: 

In this sensory bin: Color Bugs from Bug Catcher Game, black beans, fine motor tools, paper with rainbow color dot stamps.

We LOVE this insect hunt and match sensory bin. Such an engaging way to explore and learn about insects and their characteristics. Great for tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

 Insect Hunt & Match: 

In this sensory bin: black beans, insect finger puppets, magnifying glass, photos of bugs for matching

We LOVE this bug play dough tray. Play dough is the perfect sensory and fine motor material to explore! Great for an insect theme in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Play Dough Bugs: 

  In this sensory bin: colored play dough, cut up pipe cleaners, googly eyes, buttons

We LOVE this catch the bug sensory bin. So much fun to pretend, play, and explore. Great for tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Catch the Bugs: 

  In this sensory bin: green water beads, insect toob, cups, fine motor tools, net

We had so much fun learning about insects and sorting by color with this sort the color bugs sensory bin. Great for an insect theme in tot school, preschool, or even kindergarten!

Insect Sorting Bin: 

  In this sensory bin: insect toob, plastic animals, black beans, sorting tray with labels, magnifying glass, fine motor tools

Want all of this week’s Plants activities for tot school?  You can grab them here:
On my site : Insects Plans & Printables On TpT: Insects Plans & Printables

Tons of insect themed activities and ideas. Weekly plan includes books, literacy, math, science, art, sensory bins, and more! Perfect for winter in tot school, preschool, or kindergarten.

Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Tot School Bundle On TpT here: Tot School Bundle

45 Weeks of engaging themed activities and ideas ready to go for your 2-3 year old. Weekly plans include suggested books, fine motor activities, gross motor ideas, sensory bins, snacks and more! Everything you need for a year packed full of Tot School fun and learning.

Then check out the rest of our 35+ themes on the Tot School Curriculum Main Page.

by Jessica 
18 Comments

About Jessica

Bright ideas for the little learners ~ Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten is an education blog dedicated to fresh, engaging, and fun teaching ideas for toddlers, preschoolers, and the primary classroom.

View all posts by Jessica

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previous article: Tot School: Zoo
next article: Tot School: Spring

Comments

  1. Michelle says: July 14, 2020 at 9:09 pm

    Is there a link I can print off the dot marker ants?

    Reply
    • Jessica says: August 31, 2020 at 2:59 pm

      You can find the dot marker ant printables in my store here: https://mrsplemonskindergarten.com/product/tot-school-insects-plans-and-printables

      Or on TpT here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Tot-School-Insects-Plans-and-Printables–3458663

      Reply
  2. Linda Moffatt says: February 27, 2022 at 10:01 am

    Just found your site on Pinterest. I love your creative ideas ideas and variety of themes for little ones. I am spending one day a week with my four year old granddaughter and this site is a life saver. She has loved every activity we have tried. Got to admit my pocket book is taking a beating cause I am buying too much of the stuff but it is still so much fun. ThNk you Jessica!

    Reply
    • Jessica says: August 7, 2022 at 10:17 am

      Thanks so much for your kind words!!

      Reply

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