Playing with and Learning about Bugs

Spring seems like the perfect time for talking about bugs in the classroom or at home, but kids tend to love bugs all the time. Here are some educational ideas having to do with bugs as well as bug crafts and sensory activities.

Learn about the life cycle of a fly with Living Life and Learning. The post discusses all the stages a house fly goes through, and there’s a free printable with the stages labeled and a worksheet where kids can fill in the stages. You could also cut them apart and have kids put the back in the right order and label them.

Active Little Kids has some basic insect worksheets for kids, and Living Life and Learning also has a great set of insect counting cards and puzzles.

You’ll find lots of fun bug activities and worksheets at Teachers Pay Teachers, including a cute bug bingo from Preschoolers and Sunshine to help them learn spring vocabulary and a huge printable set from Pocket of Preschool that includes life cycle, parts of bugs, fun facts and information on determining what is and is not an insect.

This bug sensory bin from Crafty Kids Play looks like a lot of fun, and it uses black beans and paper crinkles as a base so it’s pretty easy to pull together.

Make some playdough and play with bugs in it with this idea from Ruffles and Rain Boots. The color on theirs ended up perfect for the color of dirt we have where I live, but you can make it more brown or red or even black depending on what your local dirt looks like.

Get outside and do a letter recognition “bug spray” activity like this one from Toddler Approved. So cute!

Ice excavation is another classic craft you can give a buggy spin by freezing bugs in your ice. Get all the details from Friends Art Lab.

If you have an outdoor place where you can observe bugs, you might want to make an easy bug hotel like this one from Happy Toddler Playtime. It’s easy to do with stuff from the yard or playground, and a great way to invite bugs to a place you can observe them.

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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