Creepy Crawlies

Last week we had fun with insects at our house--but only cute ones, of course!  On Monday we made these adorable caterpillars:

 First, I made circles with the numbers 1 through 10 in them.  It was really easy to do in Microsoft Word, but depending on your child's age and ability level, you could have them trace the bottom of a glass or another round object, and write the numbers in the circles.  You could also use patterned papers or have the kids paint a piece of paper first, to cut the circles out of.  I also made an oval for the head.

Next, the kids cut out the circles, and glued them to their papers in order from 1 to 10.  I cut an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of card stock in half, then taped the two halves together to make a 5.5 x 17" piece of paper.  Next, we added two feet per segment (so how many legs is that?), antennae, eyes (Pal insisted on the really big googly eyes), and a mouth (I'm not quite sure why Pal chose snowflake confetti for her caterpillar's mouth, but I guess it works :-)

 On Wednesday, we made these cute dragonflies.

To make some, just color two wooden craft spoons and a clothespin with markers.  I suppose you could also paint, but it's easier for little hands to add detail with markers.  Then cross the spoons and insert them in the clothespin as shown in the picture.  I used hot glue to make sure they were really secure.  We added pipe cleaner antennae and googly eyes, plus a self-adhesive magnet on the back, so they can hang on the fridge, or, as in our case, the dishwasher because the fridge is already full of fun projects.

(Sorry about the poor quality of the dragonfly pics--Hubby had the real camera somewhere, so I used the one on my phone).  I do love the way the eyes "bug out", so to speak!

The next day Pal was with us, we pretended to be spiders, but I didn't get any pictures, and spiders aren't insects, anyway. 

Here's a consolation pic of MC and Bubby hangin' on the spider-web the last time we pretended we were spiders (also from my phone camera).

We also killed some ants that day, but that's another story...

To extend the learning, you could talk about insect life-cycles and/or bug characteristics or visit your local library to borrow books about bugs.  Oh, and of course, observe some real ones :)  Have fun!