When students are learning about invertebrates, they can create edible bugs. Give each student a mini chocolate bar. With a skewer or toothpick, poke three or four holes through the long side of the chocolate bar. Have children push stringy rope-style candy through each of the holes to represent legs, three on each side. If you cannot find rope candy, attach six toothpicks to the chocolate instead. Place two dollops of chocolate frosting near the eye area. Students can put bite-sized candies on the frosting to represent the eyes. Allow them to use the frosting to add other candies to give the bug distinctive markings. After they decorate the chocolate bar as they wish, ask them if they made an insect or a bug and how they know. Explain that insects have six legs, while spiders have eight. If they made a spider, have them make an insect the time next around.
Print out a few dozen pictures of animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate. At the front of the classroom, label two boxes, one "vertebrate" and one "invertebrate." Divide students into two teams, one for vertebrate and one for invertebrate. When you say "Go," ask students to shuffle through the pictures and find their corresponding animals. For instance, the invertebrate team should search for the invertebrates and place them in the appropriate box. The first team to find all of its animals wins.
Invertebrates go through several life cycles in which they look different. For instance, they start out as eggs, but end up looking very different, while most vertebrates keep many of their features throughout their lives. Choose an invertebrate, such as the caterpillar, and print out pictures that represent different stages of its life cycle. Tape the pictures to different students, and have other students line up the pictures in order of the life cycle. For instance, the student with the picture of the egg would be on one end of the line, and the student with the picture of the butterfly would be on the other end of the line.
Invertebrates make up 95% of all animals, which means that there is quite a bit it of diversity among invertebrates. Help students identify vocabulary associated with invertebrates. Have a few dozen pictures ready. Give students a list of vocabulary words that identify invertebrates, such as "bilateral symmetry," "asymmetrical," "exoskeleton" or "gelatinous." Have students divide pictures according to the words they are given. For instance, they might divide the animals into a pile for animals who display symmetry and a pile for ones that do not.