4Real Forums: Bugs/spiders day camp ideas

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Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
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Topic: Bugs/spiders day camp ideas

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ann@home
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Joined: April 26 2007
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Posted: June 12 2007 at 1:53am \| IP Logged

I'm looking for some hands on activities, cool books, and/or any neat bug and spider related ideas for a mini day camp. I think it will be 3 days for about 2-3hrs each day but we could easily go longer each day if needed.
There will be 5 kids ranging in age 5-8yrs.
I have a bunch of books on hold from the library so hoping to find some good things there.
We are definitely using the Magic School Bus videos and books on bugs and spiders too.
It's the "wow" factor I'm looking for that will really grab the kids interest...any ideas?
Thanks
Ann

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Becky Parker
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Posted: June 12 2007 at 9:31am \| IP Logged

Well, if you're not squeamish about it one thing that my kids LOVE is just collecting bugs, labeling them and pinning them to a bug board. For larger specimens, you could even seperate the insect (when it is dead) showing the 3 parts - head, thorax, abdomen as well as the wings, legs etc.
It is interesting to talk about the differences between insects, arachnids and other bugs (is it arthropods? It's been a while since we did the bug thing!)
For all of the above you would do well to have magnifying glasses or even a low-power microscope. For the collections, you could use a real "bug board", spreader, pins, etc. or just use a styrofoam block and some straight pins, depending on how much you want to put into it.
You'll need something to kill the bugs. We used a medicine bottle with a cotton ball soaked in (uh, I forget the name of the chemical - something like acytal acetone or acetate. Could someone help with this? Macbeth? ) and then eventually went to an actual "bug killing jar" which is basically the same thing but there is no need for the cotton.
Make sure to talk about the really cool bugs like stink bugs! They were always a big hit around here.
If you are a bit squeamish, you could always purchase one of the plastic bug collections and talk about the different bug parts, groups, etc.
My kids learned a lot about bugs by drawing them. We got a book called "How To Draw Bugs" and it is amazing what they picked up from it - compound eyes, leg structure, etc. Have them make nature journals or bug journals to keep track of all their drawings.
Hope that gets you started. All of the above is probably in the books you have coming from the library. They are all things that my kids have enjoyed.

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MaryM
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Posted: June 13 2007 at 2:07pm \| IP Logged

What a great Day Camp topic! There are some books that I think are great for insect activities and experiments for that age group.

Smithsonian Bug Hunter
Insectigations

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ann@home
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Posted: June 13 2007 at 2:11pm \| IP Logged

Oooo-the Bug Hunter book sounds cool, I'll have to see if the library has that. I have the other one coming already.

I thought about pinning some bugs but dont' know anything about it, however, my friends did this in college with Beetles so I'll have to ask her to help. The kids would love to have their own collections!

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joann10
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Posted: June 13 2007 at 2:17pm \| IP Logged

Becky Parker wrote:

Well, if you're not squeamish about it one thing that my kids LOVE is just collecting bugs, labeling them and pinning them to a bug board. .

My brother is a bug collector from Cornell and we were talking about this last night. He says an easy way to kill the insect is to put it in the freezer for a few hours. After you remove it from the freezer it thaws and is still very pliable. He says that you can still open butterfly wings and arrange the legs and antennae onto a mounting board.

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