Insects Lesson Plan (K-8)

A Lesson Plan About Insects

There are several different insect orders.  They have diverse shapes and sizes.  Students should be able to learn about the diverse orders in addition to exploring shape and color.

Students will tear up colored paper in to different shapres that are suitable for each insect order.  As each is shape is constructed it can be glued onto a larger background sheet.

Grade Levels

Elementary through Junior High

Class Time Required

Two class periods (2-45 minute periods)

Objectives of the Lesson Plan

After completing this lesson the students should be able to: 

• Understand that insects (loosely called bugs here), are an extremely diverse group of organisms with many shapes and sizes. 
• Roughly organize insects into a few major groups and understand the basics of classification. 
• Organize shapes and colors into an images that mimic real organisms

Procedure

• Start the lesson by preparing the students to learn about insects.  Ask them to name certain kinds of "bugs" that they know.  Explain that insects can be classified into different groups. then emphasize that insects, like many other organisms, live and grow differently that humans.
• Show the STUDENT VIDEO: MONARCH LIFE CYCLES, produced by a 4th grade class. Tell the students they can do something similar if they put their mind to it. This video is intended to get the students excited about bugs while seeing that students close to their own age are doing some amazing work.
• Pick a few major orders of insect. Use the Untamed Science site you would like.  Divide students into groups and let them pick their own group (Butterflies, Beetles, Stick Insects, Ants/Wasps/Bees, Flies, etc.) 
• Have the students cut out shapes in colored paper such as round, flat, long and skinny, etc. Have students build them based on their understanding of their groups basic body plan.
• On one giant background paper have the class assemble their insects into a giant collage. 
• Let the students label their insects that they have made and have them tell the rest of the class what they created.

Assessment

The teacher should review each students work and find something to complement the students on.  To assure that the student learned something about classification the teacher might ask leading questions such as "Can you show me all the insects that fall into the Beetle order?"

We strongly incourage teachers to asses participation in the project from the students.  Always encourage them at this stage. 

Older students can be judged on how well they modeled the animals after representative individuals in that order.  Pay special attention to basic body plans.  Certain insects will have a clearly defined head, thorax and abdomen.  Keep this in mind when evaluating the insects for this age group.

Take the Lesson Further

To take this lesson one step beyond where we left off, you could encourage students to make their own video, similar to the Student Geeks Production that greated the MONARCH LIFE CYCLES VIDEO.