Minibeasts
By Guest
-
Juliet Mickelburgh
Minibeasts - the perfect theme for spring and summer! These are ideas only: ANY CURRICULUM LINKS DO NOT RELATE TO THE CURRENT (2012) EYFS REQUIREMENTS
- Role Play- make a bug den
- Circle times – caring for creatures and their habitats
- Make a special moment out of releasing bugs back into the garden
- Watching the life cycle of butterflies/frogs in the nursery setting
- Talk about the life cycle of a human
- Stories and poems
- Small world play
- Puppets
- Make up nonsense rhymes about minibeasts
- Role play – make a bug den using boxes, coloured paper, newspaper, fabric, pot plants
- Dressing up as minibeasts
- Small world play – tray with earth, gravel, small pond, pot plants and plastic minibeasts
- Minibeast puppets to retell and create stories
- Follow minibeast patterns – spirals/stripes/wiggly lines
- Book making and story sequencing
- Talking and listening games
- Minibeast story bags – e.g. a plastic minibeast, a leaf, a twig, a cup and a shoe – tell a story as the children pull out the props
- Circle times
- Songs and Rhymes
- Fiction and non fiction books
- Grow your own butterflies/frogs
- Go an a spider’s web walk looking for webs
- Go on a minibeast hunt (outside, and inside with plastic minibeasts)
- Magnifying glasses, bug boxes
- Life cycles
- What do minibeasts eat?
- Cooking – honey sandwiches, honey cakes
- Small world minibeasts in sand and water trays
- Plant a butterfly garden
- Be a minibeast detective in the vegetable patch looking for signs of minibeasts
- Minibeast surveys using tally/mark making charts
- Minibeast counting games – spots, legs, wings
- Sorting – minibeasts with legs/spots/wings etc
- Repeating patterns - threading bead caterpillars
- Measuring quantities in cooking (honey sandwiches/honey cakes)
- Water tray – five little speckled frogs
- Sequencing – life cycles
- Symmetry – butterflies
- Patterns and shapes
- Stories such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar/The Bad Tempered Ladybird for sequencing and time
- Minibeast counting rhymes
- Dance to the Ugly Bug Ball song
- Dance to The Flight of the Bumble Bee music
- Move like a minibeast
- Use props to support minibeast movement e.g. scarves for butterflies/ hoops as waterlillies for frog
- Over and under instruction games – moving like a worm/caterpillar
- Threading beads to make worms/caterpillars
- Cutting minibeast patterns – e.g. spots, spirals, wiggly lines, stripes
- Making minibeasts from malleable materials
- Make spider’s webs
- Junk model minibeasts
- Observational drawings of minibeasts
- Water colour paintings of minibeasts
- Make your own minibeast garden – collect natural materials and use box or small tray for each child
- Make minibeasts out of clay
- Butterfly symmetry
- Have an Ugly Bug Ball – make appropriate head wear for different minibeasts and dance to the Ugly Bug Ball music
- Listen to a nature sounds CD of bug sounds
- Create bug sounds with musical instruments
- A booklist is available here:
- 'mindmap' document here:
Introduction
This is the perfect project for Spring and Summer, with lots of scope for play and investigation in outside spaces. Looking at minibeasts provides opportunities to learn about how we care for other creatures and for our environment, as well as plenty of counting and sequencing activities. There is a wealth of fiction and non-fiction books that relate to minibeasts to support the topic. So get on those sunhats and that sun cream and explore!
Overview
On this page you will find a brief list of ideas for activities to do with the topic, organised into the appropriate areas of learning. Two activity plans are laid out in detail for each area, and there is a book list to accompany the topic.
Personal Social and Emotional Development (PSED)
Communication, language and literacy (CLL)
Knowledge and understanding of the world (KUW)
Personal, Social and Emotional Development (PSED)
Ideas and Suggestions
Activities
Minibeast Houses /forums/uploads/word.gif/forums/uploads/pdficon.gif
Lifecycles /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif
Communication, language and literacy (CLL)
Ideas and Suggestions:
Activities
Minibeast Drama /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif
Snail Words /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif
Knowledge and understanding of the world (KUW)
Ideas and Suggestions:
Activities
Web Walk /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif
Snail Snacks /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif
Display example
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy(PSRN)
Ideas and Suggestions:
Activites
Creepy Crawly Patterns /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif
Counting Lily Pads /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif
Physical Development (PD)
Ideas and Suggestions:
Activites
Minibeast Moves /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif
Crawling Caterpillars /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif
Creative Development (CD)
Ideas and Suggestions:
Activites
Snail Collage /forums/uploads/word.gif/forums/uploads/pdficon.gif
Bug Boxes /forums/uploads/word.gif /forums/uploads/pdficon.gif
There is also a sub-forum area where you can find and add to discussions on the topic of minibeasts. Find it here.
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