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Buggin’ Out: Inquiry in Illinois

Creative world school Jul 26, 2016

We’re wrapping up our month of Buggin’ Out, Insect Inquiries! We’ve taken wing and burrowed deep to investigate all of the amazing creatures that often hide out of sight. Bugs are an awesome topic for young children because they are familiar, easily accessible, miniature, colorful, social, and all-around amazing!

To illustrate some of the amazing learning that happened in our Creative World Schools this month, we want to put the spotlight on two of our awesome schools in Illinois: Creative World School Aurora and Creative World School Plainfield. They worked hard to make their Bug Inquiry developmentally appropriate across all ages, full of hands-on field experiences, visits from experts, and investigations into the math, science, literacy, and even social studies we can glean from observing bugs.

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Black and yellow paint in a baggy = mess-free bee-inspired painting

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“Insect” peek-a-boo with a green cloth

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Count the ladybug spots! Teacher-made game

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I’m wearing a bug hat! Dramatic play and costumes

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Pictures of real bugs: what do you see?

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Shredding yellow paper and collecting our “lightning bugs” in recycled bottles

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How can we find bugs? Flashlight play to look in nooks and crannies for our tiny friends

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Insect wing dance… the mesh cloths feel like soft wings

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“There’s a bug on my head” surprise peek a boo game for infants

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Our ladybug city!

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Our spiderweb

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Group literacy activities: fun with bug words and classification

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Observing a beehive: real-life experiences

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How many body parts on an ant or caterpillar? Counting practice with dots in paper grass

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Our cicada sculpture

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Our awesome ladybug

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Dance like a bug! We also used instruments to click, chirp, and buzz like bugs

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Inspired art prompts: butterfly pictures

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Learning all about grasshoppers with non-fiction reference books

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Pill-bug painting: how does it roll?

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Dragonfly painting – all sorts of textures!

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Check out our spider sensory bin… we used our fine motor skills to pick them up with giant tweezers

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Bug stamp mural

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Weaving like spiders!

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All kinds and colors of bugs

Check out Aurora and Plainfield‘s Facebook Pages for more on their awesome Bug Sculpture Contests and to follow their monthly learning journeys!

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