You can use pasta shapes to represent the life cycle stages of a butterfly.
Get a big piece of paper and use orzo for eggs, shell pasta for pupae, rotini for caterpillars, and bow ties for butterflies to show how the butterfly develops.
3. Bug Hunt
This has to be the best insect activity for preschoolers because it involves real bugs!
Take your students outside and explore the playground or school garden to find real insects.
Equip children with magnifying glasses to observe closely.
4. Insect Sorting
Provide a variety of plastic insects and have children sort them by color, size, or type.
Set up a flashlight and shine it on toy insects to cast shadows. Have children match the toy insect to its shadow.
20. Cocoon Wrapping
Use toilet paper to wrap your students up like cocoons, and then they can “emerge” as butterflies.
21. Bee Pollination Activity
Provide children with pom-poms (representing pollen) and have them transfer these from one flower to another using tweezers, simulating how bees pollinate.
22. Bug Hotels
Gather natural materials like pinecones, twigs, and leaves and help your class build bug hotels outside, offering spaces for real insects to explore.
Take them to visit the bug hotel regularly to inspect for new visitors.
23. Insect Movement Dice
Create a dice that has different insect movements on each side (crawl like an ant, flutter like a butterfly, hop like a grasshopper, etc.).
Kids can roll the dice and imitate the insect movement.
24. Itsy Bitsy Spider
Sing Itsy Bitsy Spider with your class and teach them all of the hand movements so they can follow along.
25. Insect Habitats
Discuss and create different insect habitats using sand, soil, leaves, and twigs in clear containers.
26. Butterfly Hand Painting
Using their hands, have your class create portraits of butterflies in different colors.
When they’re dry, you can draw on eyes and antennas.
27. Ladybug Dot Painting
Provide a simple ladybug outline and let children dot it with paint to create the spots using a cotton swab.
28. Dragonfly Craft
Use craft sticks as the body and thin craft paper or transparent sheets or leaves as wings.
Decorate with markers, glitter, and sequins.
29. Bug Masks
Allow children to create masks representing their favorite bugs using paper plates and craft supplies.
30. Butterfly Feeding
Set up a station outside with sponges soaked in sweetened water, simulating nectar.
Children can observe real butterflies feeding if they are attracted to them.
31. Moth And Flame Game
A variation of the “Shark and Minnows” gym game, where one child (the flame) tries to “catch” others (the moths) as they try to cross a designated area.
32. Lifecycle Spinner
Craft a spinner that displays the life cycle stages of various insects. As it spins, children can shout out the stage it lands on.
33. Worm Painting
Dip long pieces of yarn or string in paint and let kids drag them on paper, simulating the wiggly movement of worms.
In Summary
Children love learning about bugs – whether that’s wiggly worms, buzzy bees, or beautiful butterflies – so they will adore these classroom activities.
Which of these insect activities will you try with your preschoolers first?
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