Bugs!!!

FINALLY getting around to posting the rest of our bug unit!!! (I posted previously about our pollination science experiment:) The end of the year CRAZINESS has set in already!;0
First, here are the literacy centers that we worked on that week:

If you have checked out my free dinosaur Literacy center from TPT, this one is the same idea. There are tiny words written on the bugs, so the kiddos have to be "entomologists" and examine the bugs with magnifying glasses to figure out what the word is. Then, they have to record their findings on the response sheet under real words or nonsense words. I found these ADORABLE bug magnifying glasses in the dollar bins at Target!!!!!! I will be posting this center for sale in my TPT store in the next day or so:)
This is another center that I made for the kiddos. They have three work mats with 3 different words on them. One says "ladybug", one says "dragonfly" and one says "caterpillar". They have to use the letters in these words to make smaller words.

This is the 3rd literacy center we worked on this week. It was a sight word scramble. The students look at the letters on the caterpillar's head and use the letter tiles(his body segments) to build the sight word.

You can purchase this center in my TPT store. Click on the picture below to view this product.

I bought Deanna Jump's Insect unit at TPT. If you haven't checked it out yet, you MUST!!!! It is my favorite thing that I have ever bought from TPT and I have gotten some AMAZING stuff!!! This unit is just SoOoOo much fun!!!! Here are some of the things that we did:
The 1st day of this unit, we learned about insects in general and wrote about things that we learned. I forgot to take pictures of this:(
The second day we learned all about dragonflies. Here is the chart we made:

and here is an example of the writing that we did. (This book has a super cute cover for your little entomologists-it's in Deanna's unit)

Here are the adorable Deanna Jump dragonflies that we made:) I used wax paper for his wings because I didn't have any vellum. Well, his wings were just too floppy...so, I just taped a white pipe cleaner across the top to make his wings stand out:)

Since dragonflies have very large compound eyes, we really talked a lot about them this day. This AWESOME little experiment is in Deanna's unit as well! It takes no time at all...but the kids LOVED it (and so did I!!) You just need to buy some of these little "bug viewers". You can get them in the party supply section anywhere.

After they looked at a friend and saw them as a bug would see them, they drew a picture of what they saw on a response sheet! Tooooo cute!!!!

The next day we learned all about bees!!! Take a look at my pollination lesson if you haven't yet!!! It's sooo fun!!
Here is the bee chart we made:

and here's a sample of our writing:

The next day we learned all about butterflies! Here is our chart:

Here is a sample of our writing:

I have done this cute little life cycle activity for years. I made this little sheet...but I can't seem to find the file:( When I find it, I'll make it a free download! To do this activity you will need a little white bean, bowtie noodles, shell pasta, and some kind of curly pasta;)

We also ordered caterpillars as many of you do. I have NEVER had this happen before...but this year when we got our package, it was pretty mangled. When I opened it, I found the containers looking like this!!!!! There were little pieces of plastic and little caterpillars all over the inside of the box!!! Luckily there were only 2 casualties, if you can believe that!!!;)

On the last day, we reviewed what we had learned about bugs and built a bug using food...another fun Deanna Jump activity:) The bugs had to have all of the buggy body parts that an insect has:) There is also a cute little response page where a friend checks to see if their insect has all of the correct parts.

Last, but not least, I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Mother's day!!!! Here are my 2 little pumpkins:)