(per student)
1. Give the children the materials.
2. Tell the children that they will be building a model of a special kind of bug, an insect. Inform them that insects are part of the animal kingdom. They have three main body parts, six legs, two antennae, two eyes, and two or four wings.
3. Have the children divide the ball of plasticene into three small balls. Connect the balls together by inserting a toothpick through them.
4. To form the legs and the antennae of the bug, have the children break a stick of spaghetti into eight equal pieces. This can be done easily by breaking the spaghetti into half sections. Then separate the halves into halves again, i.e four into halves to form eight pieces from the original stick.
5. Have the children attach six pieces of the broken spaghetti stick to the bottom of the middle plasticene ball to represent the legs. There should be three pieces on each side.
6. The other two pieces of the spaghetti stick can be used for the bug's antennae. Have the children place them at the top of the ball of plasticene, representing the head.
7. Instruct the children on how to create wings for their bugs. Have them bend the inner loop of a paper clip so that it extends slightly at an angle from its outer loops to make a translucent appearance. This structure will represent two wings having a common point of attachment at the bottom tip of the wings.
8.Repeat step #6 to make an additional pair of wings.
9. Tell the children to attach the wings to the top section of the middle of the plasticene ball so that there is one pair of wings on each side.
10. Have the children complete the model of the insect by placing
the wiggly eyes directly under the antennae on the head of the bug.
1. Show the children some pictures of animals whose physical appearances are similar to the colors, shapes or pattern of their surroundings. Define the term, "Camouflage".
2. Tell the children they are going to "camouflage" their models of bugs outside by placing them in areas having color and pattern similar to their bugs.
3. Take the children and their models outside.
4. Have the children place their models of bugs in the outside environment, so that they cannot be seen easily. They may not place them under anything.
5. The teacher should pretend to be a bird searching for a bug
meal. Only the camouflaged bugs will not be found, i.e they will
survive and escape from their predator.
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