UNIT
3: LESSON 1
A BUG BEAUTY PAGEANT
SUBJECT: Language Arts, Music, Dance, Art
OBJECTIVE: Students will learn that insects are diverse
and fascinating, and that studying them and appreciating them can enrich
their lives.
MEASUREMENT: Students will appreciate insects. They will notice
that every insect is unique and fascinating in its own way.
BACKGROUND FOR TEACHERS:
Insects are remarkable. They make up more than half of all the living
things on this planet; there are several hundred thousand different
kinds.
Most are 1 to 10 mm in size. But some tiny insects are smaller than
some Protozoa, and some giant insects are larger than small mammals.
The "smallest" insect is a wasp, measuring 0.17-0.18 mm in length, that
lays its eggs in the eggs of other tiny insects, the thrips. The adult
female is smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.
At the other end of the scale, there are several giant insects. The
champions of all time are the extinct dragonflies that measured over
700 mm from tip to tip. Among living insects, a very large moth, measuring
240 mm, lives in Brazil, and a 110 mm "Goliath" beetle lives in Africa.
Insects occur almost everywhere on earth. Many species of insects have
been found in the Himalayan Mountains at altitudes over 19,000 feet.
Over 300 species live in the Arctic. They have been found in deep caves,
hot springs, salt lakes, and pools of petroleum. They live in arid deserts,
in forests, in soil. One kind of water striders lives permanently on
the surface of the open ocean. Many insects live in different habitats
during different stages of their lives.
Insects are missing entirely only in the deepest waters of the ocean.
Their diversity is unsurpassed. Insects exhibit some very unusual, extraordinary,
peculiar, marvelous, and unimaginable characteristics.
STUDENT ACTIVITIES:
1. Ask students to read the story Elizabeth Sees a Bad Side to
Her Favorite Creatures, and discuss the first several paragraphs
in which many kinds of insects are mentioned. Discuss Elizabeth's feelings
for insects, and her imagination!
2. Use some of the following drawings. Encourage students to study
the diversity of insects-their shapes, colors, and sizes. Compare body
parts like wings, legs, antennas, and mouths, between different species.
(Example 1)
3. Listen to the song "Flight of the Bumblebee" by N. Rimsky-Korsakoff,
and discuss the sounds that insects make.
4. If movies or videos are available, let students watch the movements
of insects. Remind them of all the stages in the insect's life cycle.
For example, an inchworm becomes a moth. The movements of those two
stages are very different!
5. Then ask students to complete one or more of the following:
-
Produce a beauty pageant in which every student is a different
insect. Have them model their best features-legs, wings, quick movement,
etc. as they walk down the runway. Ask them to write awesome descriptions
of themselves that can be read as they model.
-
Build a clay or paper "model" of their favorite insect.
- Write a story in which they shrink to the same size as
insects. Ask them to describe what they see and do. (The Disney movie
"Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" has some great examples!)
-
On this Internet site, students can see the world through the eyes
of a honey bee!
http://cvs.anu.edu.au/andy/beye/beyehome.html
-
Create a collage of all the insect pictures they can find.
-
Create a cartoon character based on an unusual insect.
-
Choreograph a dance of a community of insects interacting with
each other. Use as many unique movements as students can imagine-flying,
jumping, crawling, hovering, drinking nectar, stinging, etc.
-
Write a poem about insects making our lives more beautiful and
interesting.
