Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!

We read stories about bugs in Tuesday’s Infant Toddler Storytimes.  Well some of the adults (one in particular) weren’t too happy about this, but when I assured them I didn’t have any REAL bugs in my storytime arsenal (just some stories and flannels ABOUT bugs) they settled down.  🙂  We shared some great pop-up bugs in Bedtime Bugs, beautiful illustrations of all kinds of bugs in Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! AND we identified some bugs that hop, flap, creep and crawl in I Like Bugs!

So, a little bug lesson – a bug is a type of insect.  Sometimes we use the terms interchangeably but we really shouldn’t.  Of course, I didn’t worry about this too much with the infants and toddlers.  Another interesting tidbit you may/may not be aware of:   Spiders aren’t insects!  Do you know some of the differences?  I’ve listed them below – just for fun!  If your toddler seems intrigued by bugs, you might want to point out the following:

Legs:

Insects: 6

Spiders: 8

Meals:

Insects: a wide variety — some even eat plastic, paper, and lint

Spiders: mostly insects, but some even eat small frogs or mice

Antennae (an-TEH-nee):

Insects:  yes — that’s how they smell

Spiders: no — they sense through bristles on their legs

Wings:

Insects: usually

Spiders: never

Body Sections:

Insects: 3: head, thorax, abdomen

Spiders: 2: cephalothorax (seh-fuh-luh-THOR-ax), abdomen

Information adapted from Science World.

Well enough for my little lecture on “bugs”…here’s some of what we shared during Tuesday’s storytimes:

Stories:

 

 

Some of our “guest” bug puppets:  Our butterfly named “Precious” & our bumblebee named “Bunny

          

 For Infants:

Songs:  Welcome Song, Hello Babies (in sign), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Goodbye Babies (in sign)

Bounces for infants:  Dickery Dickery Dare, The Grand Old Duke of York, This is the way the Ladies Ride…Trit Trot to Boston

Nursery Rhyme Flannel:  Little Miss Muffett…

Tickle:  Round and Round the Garden…

Action Song:  Clap Tap and Bend

For Toddlers:

Flannelboard:

Five Little Ladybugs

Five little ladybugs sitting on a leaf

Soaking in the sunshine and the soft warm breeze

Along came a bird, quiet as can be

And snatched that ladybug off that leaf

Four, three, two, one…

 

Other action rhymes/fingerplays:  Open Shut Them, This is Big, My Head My Shoulders My Knees My Toes; Two Little Blackbirds (Storytime Remix)

Songs:  Clap Your Hands (Wiggleworms CD), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Big Gigantic Spider, Hello & Goodbye Babies (in sign)

DVD:   Iggy Finds a Ladybug

   

 Some more books about bugs to share at home: