Bugs are such a fun topic that little ones just love and I always enjoy this theme alongside children as well. A set of plastic bugs is a really great resource to have in a classroom and can be incorporated into endless learning and play activities including sorting, matching, finding, describing and guessing, feeling and guessing, counting, and organizing. Children naturally seem to be very observant of things like worms on the ground and bugs outside. They never seem to run out of ideas and interests in bugs.
One really fun bug activity I enjoyed was building a bug habitat together with children. We looked at books and pictures together and talked about where bugs live, learned about their habitats and we collected items from a short nature walk such as twigs, leaves, pebbles, grass, sand. In a large plastic tray we scooped out some compost soil, we set up a drinking station and some food for the bugs.
If the children felt the bugs needed squishy mud, they mixed some compost and water together to make mud for the bugs. Children brought in their own contributions to add to the habitat. The children drew pictures of their bugs and shared stories about their bugs. Numeracy play activities around bugs and spiders with pipe cleaners can also be a whole lot of fun because it is so interesting to them, such as 3 + 3, 4 + 4, 6 is less than 8.
Preschoolers engage more with reading books about bugs when they also have the chance to hold their own little toy bug on their own hands. Plastic bugs are also a get resource to add to playdough time, as it gives the children ideas of things to copy and make and create loads of interesting and funny stories about.