Background

Insects are classified as having 6 legs, 3 body parts (head, thorax, and abdomen), 4 wings, and 2 antennae. They are an invertebrate which means they do not have a backbone. Their skeleton is located on the outside of their bodies for protection. It is called an exoskeleton.

Vocabulary

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Antennae: Two long body parts coming from the top of the head that helps insects communicate with one another.
Insects: Small animals that have two antennae, three body parts, four wings, and six legs. They often help the garden grow.

Attention Grabber

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Today, we are going to be scientists. What is a scientist? They observe how things work, what they look like, or what things do. We are going to observe bugs! Since we are scientists, we should speak like a scientist. A scientist would not call them bugs, they call them insects. Have you ever closely observed an insect? They are very interesting looking. First, we are going to learn about the body parts, then we will go to the garden and observe them for ourselves. (Draw this on the board and label, students can count along with you). An insect has 3 body parts. They have a head, just like us and then they have two other parts. With your fingers, how many body parts do the have? Connected to those body parts, an insect has some legs. How many legs do we have? Let’s count and see how many legs insects have. They have 6 legs! On the top of their heads, they have 2 antennae. Do we have antennae? No, but our ears, mouth, and nose act like antennae. An insect’s antennae help them talk to each other and smell things in the air, just like our noses. And the last thing that we’ll observe is that insects have 4 wings, 2 on each side. A ladybug, one of the red insects with black dots, has two big wings on the outside and two smaller wings on the inside (show them a picture) or a butterfly has two wings on each side.

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Garden Activity   

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Part 1- Observe an insect

• Review insect parts and write the parts with the number next to it on a board for students to see.

• Give each pair of students a bug viewer with an insect from the garden.  

Ask students to count the number of legs, wings, antennae, and body parts.

Part 2- Make an edible insect

• Students will collect food from the garden to create their own edible bug.

• An example could include:
  • Body segments – 3 grapes (cut in half to sit on plate)
  • Legs – sorrel stems
  • Wings- sorrel leaves
  • Antennae- carrot sticks

• Have students create their bug on a plate and share what it looks like with the class before they eat it.

Wrap Up

• Review the insect parts and their uses.

What’s Next?

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• Students can share different types of insects they’ve observed in the garden. How are they similar and different from each other?

Download Materials

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Insect Part Diagram