Begin with teaching kids that grasshoppers are insects and that most insects share several common characteristics. Use a detailed plastic grasshopper or picture to point out the commonalities grasshoppers share with other insects. These include having three body parts, at least two eyes, six pair of legs, wings and a pair of antennae. Have kids use reusable clay to practice creating insects with all the correct parts.
Teach kids about the behaviors of grasshoppers, then have them write a short story as if they were a grasshopper. For example, grasshoppers often attack crops and gardens, especially if the weather has been extremely dry and their populations have grown. Grasshoppers prefer to eat around the edges of such crops as corn, wheat and other grains. Natural enemies of grasshoppers are birds, rodents and spiders. Farmers sometimes try to chase off large numbers of grasshoppers using parasites or fungus that harm the insect. So instruct kids to write a short story in the voice of a grasshopper who is being chased from a farmer's field because he has caused damage to the crops.
Read the picture book "Are You a Grasshopper?" by Judy Allen aloud to kids. The book contains illustrations from the grasshopper's viewpoint. It also contains many facts about the characteristics, habits, diet and life cycle of the grasshopper. After reading, point out the way that the illustrations show the world as the grasshopper might see it.
Have kids get down on the floor like a grasshopper and look around the room. Discuss how things look different from that height. Provide kids with crayons and paper and instruct them to draw a picture of an outdoor scene where a grasshopper might be found. Have kids draw objects the way that a grasshopper might see them if crawling around on the ground and on small plants.
Explain the grasshopper's life cycle to kids. Grasshoppers place small pods containing multiple eggs beneath the soil. In late spring to early summer, nymphs hatch from the eggs looking much like the adult but smaller and without wings. Nymphs eat and grow, molting to reveal new skin four or five times. Within 60 days, the eggs have hatched, grown, molted several times and become adults.
Have kids use clay to create models of each stage. Assist them in attaching the clay models to foam board pieces with hot glue and have them label each stage.