Bugs and Garden Critters Preschool Activities and Crafts

Free Bugs and Insects Crafts, Activities, Rhymes, and Printables

Bugs and More Learning Center Ideas 

Small World Play Area

In your sand table add some fake grass, some artificial plants and leaves, a fake spiderweb, and a supply of plastic bugs. 

Fine Motor Skills

Play Dough Center (Activity and printables available inside our Kidssoup Resource Libary)
Place pictures of bugs and insects on the wall. Let children create different bugs with play dough. 

Preschool Activities: 

Media Root

Art Center

Provide children with some deluted paint and paintbrushes. Demonstrate how to dip the paintbrush inside the paint and let the paint drip or dab the paint on one half of the paper to make small dots. Then fold the paper in half and smooth the surface and open it up to let it dry. Let children draw antennae, legs, and wings on their bugs. 

Bugs and Insects Learning Activities and Games

Insects
by Barrie Teague Alguire

Every insect has six legs, (Hold up six fingers.)
And some of them have wings. (Hold hands out and waggle fingers like wings.)
Some have antennae on their heads, (Hold two fingers up to head.)
And some of them will sting! Ouch! (Tap your palm sharply with one finger.)

Going on a Animal-Friendly Bug Hunt 
Choose a safe place to look for bugs with children: a section of a park, part of a yard, or part of the school playground. Clip a piece of paper on to clipboards that children can use to write and draw on during the hunt. Attach a pencil with string to each clipboard. Place a set of magnifying glasses in a basket to take along on the hunt.

Tell children that they will be going on a bug hunt. Discuss with children where we can find bugs (under rocks, in the grass, under leaves, in the soil, etc.). Explain that it is a bug-friendly bug hunt which means that the bugs can be observed but not disturbed. Explain to children that touching the bugs can damage their delicate wings and body parts.

Note: Explain to children that animals that are soft-bodied and without legs are not usually considered to be bugs. Worms belong to a phylum called Annelida. Slugs and snails belong to the phylum Mollusca.

Bug Hunt (Concentration Game)

Use a set of bug stickers. Attach one set of the bug stickers on to a piece of paper. Write the title "Bugs and More" to the top of the paper. Place each sticker of the second set on its own card. Let children choose a card and try to find the matching bug on the "Bugs and More" paper. 

Bugs Counting
Make bug cards by adding 1-10 bugs on 10 cards. On the back of the cards write the matching number. Hold up a card and let children call out the number of bugs on the card. Turn the card over to see if they were correct.

Bug Counting Cards (Activity and printables available inside our Kidssoup Resource Libary)

Preschool Activities: 

Media Root

Bugs and Bees Counting
Spray paint some beans yellow, and then use a black marker to draw stripes to make bees. Print out some flower shapes and write the numbers 1-10 on the flowers. Let children place the matching number of bees on each flower.

Preschool Activities: 

Media Root

Bees Number Recognition Activity (Activity and printables available inside our Kidssoup Resource Libary)

This fun bee number recognition game can be played in a large group or be used in your math corner. The children pick a bee card, count the bees, and place a bee counter on the flower with the matching number.

Preschool Activities: 

Media Root

Bug Walk 
Have children pretend to be different bugs and walk around the room by walking on all fours. For the spider let them first sit on the floor and then walk on all fours with the belly up.

Garden Critters Preschool Weekly Plan and Activities

Preschool Activities: 

Media Root

Spiders and Bugs Activities and Games

Spider Web
Provide children with a chair and some fake spiderwebs. Instruct children to create a spiderweb by stretching the web around the chair. Add a plastic spider and a supply of plastic bugs in a bowl. Let children place the bugs inside the spiderweb and remove them again before the spider eats them.

Bugs and Insects Coloring Pages and Worksheets for Preschool and Kindergarten

Bugs in the Yard Drawing	Beetle Coloring Page	Draw the Face of the Ladybug	What's a Bug Website	Five Little Ladybugs Rhyme and Booklet

FBugs Rhymes:

Bugs Are Crawling
Adapted by Jolanda Garcia

Bugs are crawling on the ground
And onto my shoe without a sound.
Up my shin and to my knee,
Creepy bugs are all over me!
Tickle, tickle . . . ooh, please don't bite!
Look for another hiding spot, all right?

Insects All Around
Original Author Unknown
(Tune: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)

Ladybugs and butterflies,
Buzzing bees up in the sky,
Teeny, tiny little ants,
Crawling up and down the plants,
Many insects can be found,
In the sky and on the ground.

Bugs and Insects Books:

The Best Book of Bugs	Beetle Bop	Bugs A to Z	Eliza and the Dragonfly
The Icky Bug Alphabet Book	In the Tall, Tall Grass (An Owlet Book)	Bugs (Animotion)	The Grouchy Ladybug