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The children and I had the chance to get in a spooky mood and use our senses to explore some creepy bugs, some real and some pretend.
First, the children got to handle a range of rubbery, stretchy, sticky pretend worms, some big black pretend spiders, and some wiggly pretend centipedes.
The worms were definitely the most interesting to the children. We talked about how the worms felt in our hands and practiced using the words "squishy," "stretchy," and "wiggly" to describe the worms.
We also named the colors of the worms and bugs- the worms were red, the spiders were black and orange, and the centipedes were brown.
After replacing the pretend bugs in their "cage," we searched the yard for any real bugs that might still be lurking... we had only taken a few steps before one child spotted a wooly bear caterpillar!
Everyone got a chance to gently hold the caterpillar before we set it down near a pile of leaves. We headed over to the flower garden, and sure enough, we found some teeny, tiny ants busy at work preparing for the winter.
More searching turned up the evidence of another creepy creature- a spider left a web out for us to see, but we never found the spider. We took a few minutes to think about what spiders use their webs for, then a closer inspection of the web revealed a tiny bug stuck in the web. We then talked about how spiders use their webs to trap food.
We took a few minutes to turn over some rocks and bricks in the back yard, and we found even more bugs! We saw a "roly-poly" pillbug, lots of ants with their eggs, and a slow cricket creeping through the grass.
All in all it was a great day for taking time to observe some of the creepy crawly creatures we share our world with and learning about them!
See you soon!