Learning about minibeasts at home or at school

Whether learning at home or at school, there is a world of minibeasts for children to explore, inside and outdoors. Regardless of our feelings towards certain species, all are important to our environment and contribute to our lives in different and often unseen ways including pollinating our plants, decomposing waste and providing food for other species. It is fair to say that we need minibeasts more than they need us.

Learning about living things is an important part of the science curriculum for children in their first few years of school. They learn about the features of living things, their needs and their life stages. Studying minibeasts allows for learning in all these areas in a small space over a short amount of time.

At readilearn, we support your teaching and children’s learning about minibeasts with a constantly growing collection of resources. In fact, three new resources were uploaded this week.

Observe and record

An interesting project is to use a magnifying glass to discover the different species of minibeasts that live in and around our classrooms and homes. Much can be learned through observing their behaviour.

The Code for caring explains how to observe while maintaining safety for self as well as the minibeasts.

My Minibeast Diary provides a format and suggestions for recording children’s observations.

Butterfly Diary provides a format and suggestions for recording children’s observations of the life stages of a butterfly from egg to butterfly.

Read and research

What children learn through their observations can be extended through research.

The Honey bees ebook presents information about honey bees in a book that can be displayed and read on the interactive whiteboard.

Minibeast information cards — Set 1 presents information about 12 different minibeasts, each on its own A4 sheet. Information includes features of the minibeast, what it eats, where it lives and other interesting facts. (Note: These are also included with the Junior Entomologist Game so there is no need to purchase them if you already own the game.)

New this week! Minibeast information cards — Set 2 presents information about 12 more minibeasts in addition to those in Set 1. (Note: They are included with Minibeast information cards — Set 2 plus questions so there is no need to purchase them if you already own the set plus questions.)

New this week! The printable Minibeast Word Cards can be displayed or used as a resources for discussing and identifying minibeasts. The resource also includes images for sorting and for matching pictures to words. Teaching ideas are included.

The printable Butterfly word cards can be displayed and used as a reference for reading and writing.

Record research

Children may record their knowledge in a minibeast project. Different ideas for presentations and information to be included are provided.

My minibeast ABC encourages children to list minibeasts alphabetically and to choose one for each letter to draw and write about. A ‘cheat sheet’ with a Minibeast Alphabet for teachers is also available.

Learn through games

Learning can also occur when children are having fun.

The interactive Minibeast Trivia Quiz for use on the interactive whiteboard presents children with 10 questions based on information in the Minibeast Information Cards — Set 1.

The Junior Entomologist Game engages children in reading and researching minibeasts as they play. It includes Minibeast Information Cards — Set 1 and three sets of cards for playing the game.

• The Insect Series Question Cards for the Junior Entomologist Game provides an additional set of questions based on the Insect Series by Rebecca Johnson. If you have the books available, the game can be extended using these cards.

• New this week! The Minibeast Information Cards — Set 2 plus Question Cards provides an additional set of 12 cards and 36 questions to extend use of the Junior Entomologist Game.

Additional and themed resources in other curriculum areas

The Honey bees — Interactive is designed as a follow up activity to reading the Honey Bees ebook. It supports teaching and learning about the features of non-fiction books.

Ladybirds reading and comprehension activity consists of a series of lessons perfect for use in your reading groups.

 

In the Draw a butterfly and Draw a bee games, children develop their knowledge of butterfly and bee anatomy as they play a game of chance.

The 9 square insect puzzle is a fun problem-solving challenge for fast finishers or spare moments.

The Busy Bees 100 chart is a bee-themed interactive chart for use on the interactive whiteboard, suitable for all your normal number work with numbers up to 100.

The printable Busy bee Number lines and dice are great for many maths activities involving numbers up to 20.

Make a symmetrical name butterfly demonstrates for children how they can make their name in a symmetrical butterfly using PowerPoint.

Look for these and other minibeast-themed resources in the Science Biology collection.

While all of these resources are available to purchase individually, best value is achieved through purchase of an annual subscription which provides you with immediate access to all readilearn teaching resources for an entire year.

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Remember to check out the complete readilearn collection of

over 430 teaching resources for the first three years of school

Resources beyond worksheets – lessons for teachers made by teachers.

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