Every Day is a Chance to Learn: March 2017

It's been raining quite a bit lately, and the other day when we were on our way home after C's school, we spotted lots of snails who came out to play! It was perfect and cool after the rain had dissipated, and C was so thrilled to spend some time observing the beautiful nature around us!

C spotted a snail! We found a total of 8 snails that evening!

Seeing how excited C was, I was inspired to come up with some bug-themed activities to have fun and learn at the same time. :)

1. Make a Leaf Insect!

Many animals and insects have the ability to camouflage themselves, as a way of protecting themselves from predators. The leaf insect is one of these amazing creatures, and here, we came up with a simple activity to make your very own leaf insect! You will need:

- Leaf insect printout (available in the free printable at the end of this post)
- Pair of scissors
- Green straw (cut into 3 small pieces)
- 3 green pipe cleaners
- Glue

Cut out the leaves and apply glue
to attach the straws.

Adding the pipe cleaners as legs.

Push the pipe cleaners through the straws.
Great activity for fine motor skills too!

Giving the leaf insect a cute face!

C is pretty happy with her leaf insect!

2. Ladybug Fun!

This activity also involves some fine motor skills to create a beautiful ladybug! C used a hole puncher, scissors and some glue to give the ladybird black spots, antennae and legs! This kept her busy for a while. :)

C's pleased with her ladybird!

3. Decorate Your Butterfly

Use your imagination to decorate and create a lovely butterfly!

4. Bee Hive!

A tracing and counting activity.

5. Match the Bug!

Reading and matching worksheet.

6. Shrink the Bugs!

Here we were inspired by a honey bee 'globe' C made at a farmers' market event.

C adored it and we decided to make our own garden 'globe' filled with flowers, glitter and more bugs! Here were the supplies we used:

Transparent plastic sheet from Daiso,
colourful sharpies and scissors to create
the bugs!

- Transparent plastic sheet (to trace the bugs from the free printable)

- Colourful Sharpie Pens

- Scissors

- Clear Bottle

- Glitter

- Craft Flowers

- Super Glue

- Water

- Green decorative paper (to decorate the outside of the bottle, optional)

Step 1: Trace and colour the bugs on the plastic sheet. Cut them out.

C helped to draw the flowers onto the
plastic sheet!

Step 2: Place the cut plastic sheet onto foil on a baking tray. Bake at the recommended temperature. We did it at 130 degrees Celsius for around 80 seconds. The trick is to watch the process carefully. Stop once the shrinking has ceased.