Bugs Share Your Habitat

Discover what insects, spiders, worms and more inhabit the neighborhood around your afterschool center!

No matter where you are, a surprising array of living things occupies the same space. In the city, in the country, in the suburbs—many species of insect, arachnid, worm and other organisms can be found if you take the time to look. Giving children the opportunity to do an inventory of these creatures not only familiarizes them with living things and classification, but instills in them a sense of place and an understanding of and an appreciation for their home environment.

Preparation

Gather all materials and show children how to use the magnifying glasses, rulers and binoculars, etc.

Suggested Materials

Magnifying glasses
Plastic containers, yogurt cups or other “bug boxes”
Unlined paper of My Observation Journal pages (click for PDF)
Crayons, markers or colored pencils
Rulers
Clipboards or pieces of stiff cardboard

Optional Materials

Binoculars
Craft/Popsicle sticks, plastic spoons or gloves for collecting critters
Field guides

Opening Discussion

Ask your students to help you brainstorm a list of the kinds of insects, worms and bugs they think they might find outside your building. Where might they look to find these critters? What should they do when they encounter them? Tell them that rather than collecting and keeping the animals, they’ll be making drawings of them. In some instances (for example, worms, pillbugs, etc.), they might temporarily contain a critter in one of the “bug boxes” you’ve provided in order to get a better, more studied look at them. Tell children that they’ll need to come and find you before they capture anything, and use your discretion in deciding whether it’s OK to contain the critter they’ve found. And make sure to let it go when the child is finished drawing!

The Challenge

How many bugs can you find around your afterschool?

Doing the Activity

Have students work individually or in pairs for this activity.
Make sure that the kids are armed with drawing materials, and send them off to find some bugs. Stress how important it is that they are gentle with and respectful of any living things that they find. Try to discourage handling any living creature. If capturing a critter is necessary in order to observe it, show children how to scoop it up with the bug box, being careful not to hurt the animal.

Let’s Talk About It

After 15-20 minutes of searching, stop your students and bring them together to share their observations with each other. What have they found? Where did they find them? Was anyone surprised by what they found or didn’t fin? This discussion should last no more than 5 minutes.

Build On What They Talked About

Send them back to search and draw again, encouraging multiple drawings. Once the session is done, collect the drawings and save them. If you do this activity multiple times, these drawings can be used to create a “living inventory” or a field guide of the kinds of critters that live around your afterschool center.

Suggestions

Polaroid and digital cameras can be used in addition to drawings—but don’t miss out on the drawings! Having kids draw what they see is an invaluable tool in teaching them to be good, careful observers.
Put a date and time on any drawings the students do. This can lead to later conversations about what is living near your afterschool and when you might find them.
The word “bug” is commonly used to refer to any small critter like insects, spiders, worms, pill bugs, etc. This activity uses this term in the same way. But scientifically, “bugs” are a specific kind of insect (ex. aphids are “true bugs”—ants are not). Insects all have 6 legs – spiders have 8 legs and are not insects, but “arachnids” along with scorpions, ticks and mites. Worms have no legs and are not insects either. And pill bugs (also called “wood lice”, “sow bugs” or “roly-polies”) are none of these—they are actually crustaceans (like crabs and lobsters)! A scientific term that refers to all of these creatures (except worms) is “arthropods”.