Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Creepy Crawlies: Questions and Answers About Bugs

Creepy Crawlies:  Questions and Answers About Bugs
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove)

Creepy Crawlies

Little Minds Want to Know

Adults may not be the biggest fans of bugs, but children love them. One of the most popular books in my preschool class is Creepy Crawlies by John Stidworthy. Creepy Crawlies answers many questions kids have about all sorts of . . . well, creepy crawlies. The book holds the interest of very young toddlers who are just learning to love books to school age children. The pages are informative and the illustrations are pretty realistic, almost like looking at photographs. Creepy Crawlies is illustrated by Michael Posen. It is a Dempsey Parr Book first published in 2000.

Creepy Crawlies:  Questions and Answers About Bugs
Image Credit:  Abundant Family Living (Tina Truelove)
 Children learn the answers to questions such as:

Which spiders make the biggest webs?
How many eyes does a spider have?
Which spiders are human killers?
Can spiders fly?
Where do the biggest scorpions live?
Why do ticks drink blood?
How can you tell a millipede from a centipede?
Why are some termites magnetic?
How do ants know each other?
Why are bees hairy?
How many kinds of wasps are there?
What is the biggest dragonfly?
How do cicadas sing?
Which bugs stink?
Do grasshoppers have ears?
Which flies are helpful to police?
Which beetles shoot their enemies?
How are the colors of butterflies made?
Which worm sucks blood?
How do snails make shells?

Creepy Crawlie chapters include:

Spiders
Scorpions, Ticks, Mites, and Millipedes
Termites
Ants
Bees and Wasps
Dragonflies, Mantids, and Stick Insects
Bugs
Locusts and Grasshoppers
Fleas and Lice
Flies
Beetles
Butterflies and Moths
Worms
Slugs and Snails

Creepy Crawlies is also great for young children because you don’t necessarily need to read the book from cover to cover. Many children will want to read it all because it is full of information and colorful pictures, but if time is limited or a child is interested in a particular bug, you can choose to read only certain pages or chapters.

Who knows? You might even develop a surprising interest in a bug or two . . . or maybe not.
Creepy Crawlies:  Questions and Answers About Bugs
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Supplemental Activities and Resources

Make a Worm Hotel:   Mix alternating layers of sand and potting soil into a large glass jar, like a Mason canning jar. Put in 3 or 4 healthy earthworms. Add enough water for moisture but don’t flood the contents. Earthworms prefer the dark, so cover the jar with dark construction paper or tightly woven cloth. Secure the paper with a rubber band or yarn, but do not seal the jar with a lid. If you do, the worms will suffocate. After a few days, take a look. If the worms have been busy, as they should be, the layers of sand and soil will be all mixed up.

Plaster of Paris Beetles:  You can purchase Plaster of Paris here and at most craft stores. Mix it up according to the directions and pour the mixture into a plastic spoon. Rub petroleum jelly on the spoon first.  It will make it easier to remove the hardened plaster later.  Allow the mixture to dry for 24 hours. Then, slide the plaster from the spoon. It should resemble a beetle when turned with the rounded side up. Show the children photographs of beetles and supply them with paints and brushes. Instruct the children to paint their own beetle.

Create a Bug:  Supply the children with paper plates, toilet paper tubes and paper towel tubes, construction paper, beads, beans, pom-poms, glue, and anything else you want to add. Instruct the children to create their own bug.   Let them create!

Usborne Books offers several great books about bugs too!

1001 Bugs to Spot

Creepy Crawlies:  Questions and Answers About Bugs
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Crawling with bugs to find, count and talk about, this fascinating picture book provides hours of puzzle-solving fun. Spot beetles scurrying across desert dunes, butterflies flitting through the jungle, caterpillars munching on leaves, and many, many more bugs!  

1001 Bugs to Spot Sticker Book

Creepy Crawlies:  Questions and Answers About Bugs
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Spot beetles scurrying across desert dunes, butterflies flitting through the jungle, caterpillars munching on cabbage leaves, and many, many more bugs. Little spotters can keep track of all their finds using the stickers in the middle of the book. 

Big Book of Big Bugs

Creepy Crawlies:  Questions and Answers About Bugs
This item is available here.

From an amazing stick insect longer than your arm to gigantic spiders as big as a dinner plate, this book's huge fold-out pages let readers discover how big some of the biggest bugs in the world really are.   

Bugs

Creepy Crawlies:  Questions and Answers About Bugs
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There are thousands and thousands of different types of bugs in the world. Find out all kinds of creepy-crawly things about them in this fascinating book.  


Creepy Crawlies:  Questions and Answers About Bugs
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Bugs is part of an exciting reading series for young children with lots of pictures and very simple text about the fascinating world of bugs. Your child can progress through the Young Beginners series to the Beginners series, followed by the Discovery Adventure series for older readers.  

Busy Bug Book

Creepy Crawlies:  Questions and Answers About Bugs
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Watch as the bug whizzes around the tracks in this delightful interactive book. Wind up the bug by pulling it backward, place it on the tracks and watch it wiggle around the garden. 

First Sticker Book - Bugs

Creepy Crawlies:  Questions and Answers About Bugs
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Butterflies, dragonflies, caterpillars, spiders – the world is full of amazing bugs. Find out which ones live in jungles, deserts, swamps, and gardens by adding 170 stickers to the pictures in this book. 

Bug Hotel

Creepy Crawlies:  Questions and Answers About Bugs
This item is available here.

Lift the flaps to find out facts about your favorite creepy crawlies! Then learn how to create your own sustainable environment for garden insects. 

Creepy Crawlies:  Questions and Answers About Bugs
Volcanoes by Stephanie Turnbull


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