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ACTIVITY

Fascinating Bug Facts

The variety of insects on earth is staggering. Preschoolers, who are starting to get a handle on numbers, will find the large number of species of insects fascinating.

Curriculum Area

Science

Before You Start

No preparation required.

Let's Begin

1. If you counted all the types of bugs and animals in the world, about 70% are insects. Together with the children, count out 70 bugs and lay them in rows. Then, in separate rows, count together 30 bears or toy animals. Explain that if these toys represented all the kinds of animals in the world, the two groups give some idea of how many more types of insects there are on earth than other kinds of animals.

2. Add the 30 counting bears to the group of 70 insects. Ask children to imagine that these 100 bugs and bears represent every kind of animal or bug on earth. Point to each one and count 1, 2, 3, 4, removing the fourth bear or bug each time, until you have counted through the whole 100. You should have separated 25 items. Explain that of all kinds of animals on earth, one of every four is a certain class of insect –beetles - the largest group of species on earth. There are around 500,000 different species of beetles.

3. Next, starting at 71, count together the remaining 30 bugs, adding them to the rows of bugs already started. Explain that there are only 100 bugs here, but if you had one hundred times as many bugs, you would have 10,000 bugs. Now, pretend that each bug is really 10,000 bugs. You would have 1 million bugs, which is how many different types (species) of insects that have been identified.

Furthermore

For a wide variety of insect printouts, visit the Enchanted Learning web site, click on “Animal Printouts” and then “Insects,” or go to this web page: http://www.enchantedlearning.com

	100 counting bugs, or toy bugs and 30 other small toy animals or counting bears, making sure all 130 items to count are relatively the same size.
	A chalkboard or large writing pad and marker