Insect Templates Four Winds Nature Institute

							                             Four Winds Nature Institute
                          4 Casey Rd. Chittenden, VT 05737
                           802-353-9440 www.fourwindsinstitute.org

                   STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION: INSECT ANATOMY
                              ~Teaching Suggestions~

ALIKE YET DIFFERENT
Direct children‟s attention to differences in the insects bodies such as legs, eyes, antennae, wings
so that children notice more than just color differences.

Dress up a volunteer or classroom teacher as an insect. Make cardboard cutouts of the thorax and
abdomen (long enough to cover the volunteer‟s legs). The head of the insect is the volunteer‟s
own head. Add the remaining body parts as the children call for them (Legs = six socks or
stockings, antennae = pipe cleaners, compound eyes = egg carton, simple eyes = sticky dots,
mandibles = paper cut outs, wings = wire coat hangers with plastic wrap).

Use supplemental Nature Program Insect Felt Board Templates. After children examine their
insect photos and you have introduced the parts of an insect from the diagram, have children put
together their own felt board insect as a review.

Copy “Parts of an Insect” diagram from Hands-On Nature. Have younger students color each
body part a different color. Erase the labels for the older students and have them fill in the labels.

INSECT SORTING
Hand out an insect photo (provided by Four Winds) to each child. Tell the children to find others
with insects that are similar to theirs. Usually children will sort themselves into insect orders
(flies, bees, beetles, dragonflies, butterflies, etc.) without any prompting. Have each team
introduce its insect group. In Four Winds‟ Upper Grades Challenge, children will learn the Latin
names for these orders and their meanings.

PUPPET SHOW
Bring in a recording of crickets, or a small jar or terrarium of crickets as background music. Be
sure to keep the live crickets in a cool place and release them wherever they were caught.

INSECT SEARCH
Use a white sheet outside to view insects. Spread a sheet on the ground and have students walk
towards it, herding the insects onto the sheet. This makes it easier to see the insects.

Small insects can be hard to see through the bug box magnifying lid - use a hand lens in addition.

If it looks as though it might rain on the day you are to teach, collect insects (non flying)a day
ahead of time. Spread a sheet on the floor of the classroom and have the students gather around it
with their bug jars. Gently release insects onto the sheet. Observe the insects and then have the
students catch them in their jars. To avoid injuring the insects, release a few at a time and have
the students take turns. Have students pass around some of the insects in their jars for all to see.

JOURNAL ACTIVITY
Prompt: Draw your insect and label the parts.
INSECT RACES
Draw small and large concentric circles in the middle of a sheet or piece of poster board to make
a racetrack. Have children catch insects like grasshoppers, ants and beetles (not flying insects) in
jars. Have all the children with hopping insects gather around the racetrack. At go, have the
children shake their insects out into the middle of the small circle and then sit back to watch the
race as the insects hop away. Which is first to cross the outer circle (finish line)? Repeat with
crawling insects. Which were the fastest?

INSECT OLYMPICS
Mark off a starting line and have the children compete in these four events.
Flea Jump: A flea can jump 200 times its body length. Have each child do a standing jump
beginning at the starting line. Mark the landing point. Now have the child lie down to compare
body length to distance jumped. Most children can jump their own height (one body length),
more or less.
Fly Flap: A biting midge can flap its wings 100x per second. Using a timer or a watch, count
how many times a child can flap his/her arms up and down in 10 seconds. Divide by ten and
compare to the speed of a midge‟s wings.
Cockroach Dash: Some cockroaches can run 50 times their body length in 1 second, which
would be about 14 seconds for a 50 yard dash. Mark off a distance 50 yards. Time how long it
takes each child to run from the start to the finish line. Are they faster or slower than a
cockroach? Remember, to be as fast as a cockroach, a 3‟ tall child would have to run 50 yards in
a second!
Maggot Crawl: Some fly maggots can crawl about ½ foot per second. It would take a maggot 20
seconds to travel 10 feet. Have the children belly-crawl (don‟t use hands) across a 10‟ tarp and
compare.to maggot speed. Remember, this distance is only about 2-3 body-lengths for a child but
many times the body length of a maggot (they are usually less than 1” long). ...

MAKE AN INSECT
Show the students the materials that you have gathered for them to create an insect and review
the body parts that need to be included. For younger students pre-cut holes in the egg cartons for
legs, eyes, and antennae. Cut pipe cleaners in half.

Or, MAKE AN INSECT RELAY: Place two sets of materials for making an insect at one end of
the school lawn. Include in each set: 3 medium Styrofoam balls for body parts; 1 bamboo skewer
to hold body together; 2 feathery pipecleaners, cut to 2” each, for antennae; 6 regular
pipecleaners, cut in half, for legs; 2 brads for eyes; 1 Q-tip for mouth; 4 triangles and 2 brads of
fabric for wings. Gather children about 30‟ away on school lawn, and divide children into two
teams. At “go,” first child in each team goes to collect one insect part and brings it back to group,
tags second in line who goes to collect another insect part, and so on. While runners are getting
parts, teammates work on constructing insect. Winning team must have all the parts put together
in an anatomically correct manner.

EXTENSIONS
“Bug Boogy” by H. Lange: Have the students form groups of three, each being an insect body
part to form a complete insect. Have each insect practice moving: # 1 and #3 step forward with
their right legs while #2 steps forward with his/her left leg. After practicing this, have these
„bugs‟ race to a designated location and back again.


           Four Winds Nature Institute – 7/08