This month for our simple activities we have bug activities! These easy activities don’t require much effort, time, or supplies which make them perfect for all families! With simple tweaks, these activities are perfect for kids of different ages!
Bug Swatting Letters
For this easy activity cut out or draw some bugs and write letters on them. I used the Magic Playbook bug printables for this. I laminated it so we’d be able to reuse it multiple times for different kids. For Jake, I used a dry erase marker and wrote each letter of his name on the bugs. I had them in order because we’re working on name recognition. As I said each letter he hit the bug and repeated the letter. After we were done we would say his name! We repeated it a few times then he was off to play with his toys!
Ladybug Dot Counting
This was one of those activities that the boys could do all day! I used dot stickers and made ladybugs out of them. I used 1-5 because that’s what we’re working on right now. Each ladybug had a certain amount of dots of them and they had to match the pairs. It was a really simple activity but the boys loved it and wanted to do more!
Bee Water Transfer
This simple activity was a lot of fun. Activities with water are always a hit in our house! I filled a cute flower bowl with water and added food color to it. I put out an ice cube tray (sort of like a honeycomb) and had them transfer water from the bowl to the ice cube tray using a pipette. You could use tap water in a bowl and then transfer the water to another bowl too. It can be as simple as you need it to be! Since they used pipettes it took them a little while to get it done, perfect for me to have a few minutes to do other things!
Bee Nectar Pom Pom
If you don’t want to use water this activity is perfect! I used an egg crate as a honeycomb and pom poms in a cute flower bowl as the pollen. To transfer the pom poms from the flower to the honeycomb we worked our fine motor skills and used training chopsticks but you could use tweezers or tongs instead. For Jake who’s the youngest, he transferred the pom poms from the flower to the honeycomb. I set the stopwatch on my phone and the older boys raced to beat each other’s time.
After they raced we talked about how bees collect nectar which is turned into honey. We also talked about why bees are important to the environment. This quick activity was a lot of fun for all of the boys. The older boys can’t resist a competition, knowing this has helped to get them to enthusiastically engage in activities!
Bug Hunt Binoculars
We reused our leprechaun binoculars and made them into bug binoculars. To make these I painted toilet paper rolls and had the boys decorate them. We used Kiwi Stix to draw on them. Kwik Stix on solid paint sticks. I love that they’re smooth, don’t make a mess, don’t soak through paper, and they keep their vibrant color! After they finished decorating them I hot glued the toilet paper rolls together. Then I punched holes on the side and added yarn so they could hang it around their neck. I had printed out the cute bug journal from the Magic Playbook which they used to record their findings!
Bug Letter Match
I used a cute printable from the Magic Playbook but this could be done on a sheet of plain white paper. I simply used a dot marker and drew bugs with a letter in the dot. Since this was for Jake I used the letters in his name. Then I wrote the letters on dot stickers. After I was done Jake matched the letter on the stickers to the letter in the dot.
*Tip: When I talked to a preschool teacher she said that it’s helpful to focus on the child’s letters in their name first.
Variations:
- Match the color colors, the color of the dot in the middle, and the dot sticker.
- Use sight words instead.
- Match numbers, one has the word written (example: five) while the other has the number (example: 5)
These bug activities are perfect for kids of all ages! Looking for more simple activities, check out last month’s post, simple activities to do outside, and our BIG list of simple activities!