Summer is almost here and your preschoolers are certain to be excited and ready to be out of school. A fun activity that will allow your students to burn off energy outdoors, while learning about nature, science, and counting is a 'find and count bug hunt'!

Supplies You'll Need
- Clipboard
- Pencil
- Magnifying glass
- Bug checklist

Using clip art and word processing software, magazine cutouts and card stock, or your own drawing skills and a copy machine, find (or draw) a picture of common bugs in your area and make a 'treasure hunt' checklist. On the day of the activity, give each of your students (or group of students) a clip board, checklist, pencil, and magnifying glass to take outside with them. Instruct them to find as many of each bug as they can. Recording their finds with a tally on their sheet. Also, Invite them to use their magnifying glass to explore flower beds, under rocks, etc. and to see the bugs more closely. Give them a certain time limit, then return to the classroom and count together the number of bugs found. You can then make graphs to compare bug counts, visually represent the totals, and a whole host of other information.

Wrap up the lesson with story time (and some relevant reading material):

An Ant's Day Off by Bonny Becker
The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle
The Gentleman Bug by Julian Hector

Find and Count Bug Hunt | No Time For Flash Cards

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