Insects and invertebrates

Insects

From tiny scurrying ants to vibrant, flying butterflies, children are attracted to insects and other invertebrates they see within their world. Young children intently observe the animals they find in their gardens and playgrounds, and early childhood educators can embrace these teachable moments.

Types of invertebrates

Bluebottles, centipedes, coral, crustaceans, insects, jellyfish, millipedes, sea sponges, slaters, slugs, snails, spiders, and worms. 

Types of insects

Ants, aphids, bees, beetles, butterflies, caterpillars, cicadas, crickets, dragonflies, flies, grasshoppers, lice, moths, termites, wasps, and weevils.

EYLF learning outcomes

Invertebrates, including insects, support the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) learning outcomes. An interest in animals can teach children to respect nature (2.4), spark their curiosity and imagination (4.1), and promote involvement in inquiry, research and investigation (4.2).

Learning experiences

Identify insects in your garden

Encourage children to search for insects and invertebrates in their outdoor play areas (if they aren't doing this already!) Discuss safety precautions, like not touching them, but support their curiosity. Identify these animals using this list of online identification tools from CSIRO.

Play hide and seek

Insects are problems for vegetable gardens. They are difficult to spot because they are small and are good at hide and seek. They love to eat fresh green leaves like lettuce and Asian greens.

The South Australian Department of Education has written about searching for bugs with children and identified some of their hiding places:

“Walk around the garden with your child and see if you can find where the insects are hiding. Will they be on top of the soil? Will they be hiding under the leaves? Are they camouflaged and the same colour as the trunk of the tree?... Worms live under the soil. We need to dig deep in the soil to find a worm.

“Talk about when the insects or bugs might come out. Some insects like to come out when it is hot and sunny and other insects like it to be cool and wet… It’s raining so we can go outside and collect snails. There won’t be any butterflies because they don’t like the rain.”

Go on a bug hunt as a group, and finish with a follow-up experience of hide and seek. Children can pretend they are tiny critters squeezing into tight garden spaces. 

A lesser-played version of hide and seek starts with one child hiding. The rest of the group looks for them. When the first person finds them, they quietly squeeze in beside them. Now there are two hiding insects! The game continues until all members of the group have squeezed into the communal hiding spot.

Count spots and legs

These tiny creatures even connect with mathematics. When you see a creepy crawly, count how many legs it has. When you spy a ladybird, count its spots. When you find a line of ants, count how long it is.

Construct insect models

Preschool children may enjoy building large models of insects. Offer them containers and boxes from your recycling bin, plaster bandage, paper mache, and easy-to-bend strips of wire.

Toddlers can make insects from playdough, pipe cleaners and googly eyes. Provide them with pictures of insects to view while they are at the playdough table.

Inventors of Tomorrow write about making bugs in their bug project. They balanced teacher direction with child-led exploration of materials, so the children could be inspired by the possibilities and have agency in their own creations:

“On our biggest table we set out samples of multiple different kinds of bugs kids could make, and all the materials to make those bugs or any other bug they wanted to create. It included a poster that showed anatomy of an ant and a spider and examples of a few other kinds of bugs.”

Discussions

  • How do insects help plants grow? How do they help pollinate flowers?
  • Have you ever seen an insect change from one form to another (like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly)?
  • How do insects protect themselves from predators? Do insects live in groups or by themselves? Why do you think so?
  • How do you feel about insects? Are they fascinating or scary to you?

Resources

Books

Music