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Pretend Insect Ideas

Perhaps you are introducing school children to insects, and you want to engage them in activities without having to use real bugs. You might also have a child interested in them at home, or you might just be looking for some new bug activities to engage yourself in. Whatever the reason for your interest, there are many ways to create pretend insects and just as many uses for them.
  1. Costumes

    • Create your own insect costume for a Halloween or bug themed party. For example, you could take a black hooded sweatshirt and use yellow tape to create stripes around it for a bee costume. Dress in a black or white sweatsuit and tape large fabric wings to your back or create them out of poster board. Visit a local Halloween costume shop if you are not crafty and would prefer to purchase such an outfit.

    Crafts

    • Crafts are a way to introduce insects to the classroom. Have students use Styrofoam balls for the body of an ant or a bee. They can glue the balls together or connect them with a stick and then paint them to resemble various insects. Distribute twigs or wooden craft sticks to the class, show them a picture of a walking stick bug and ask them to put together their own walking stick model with the twigs or wooden craft sticks and glue.

    Cooking Projects

    • Work at home or in school to make some delicious insect projects. Young children could make ants on a log, where they put peanut butter on a celery stick with a few raisins. Be sure to check for peanut allergies before completing this project. Another popular edible insect favorite is to crumble chocolate cookies on top of chocolate pudding. Put gummy worms in the pudding to make it look like a garden with insects in it.

    Plays

    • Have students or your children create or wear insect costumes and put on plays. Younger students could recite poems such as "Little Miss Muffet," "The Ants Go Marching" or "Fuzzy, Wuzzy, Creepy Crawly" for their parents or during a school wide talent show. Older students could be divided into groups and asked to create scripts about insects to perform for younger students. You could have high school students put on a performance of Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis."

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