It's in our blood. My maternal grandfather was an entomologist and actually discovered 2-3 insects. One, a mosquito, bears a variation of my mother's maiden name. I even did my first report on mosquitoes when I was in fourth grade. For my kids, we broadened our fun to any insect.
We introduced the main characteristics of an insect by playing a little game. We named the body part and identified the corresponding part on our own bodies--thorax, abdomen, head, legs, and fingers pointing out like bunny ears for antenna. I provided a basic illustration of an insect. We identified the body part on the picture and rolled a color coded die to discover what crayon to use to color that body part.
We also check out close to a buh-zillion library books about specific insects and have been reading them. This has been a great way to explain the life cycle of insects as we spot the egg, larva (baby), pupa (child), and imago (adult). We learned lots of useless, fun facts. For example, the female firefly flashes approximately every 2 seconds and the male only every 5 seconds or so, an ant is so strong it could carry 30 of its friends, and the grasshopper can spit brown juice to scare of predators. I think this latter one would be quite effective. In kindergarten, there was a girl who would cry so hard when her parents dropped her off, she would throw up and we would all stay a safe distance from her.
Another day we made a bug hotel by placing a bit of pineapple, some grated cheese, and leaves into a plastic cup. The kids dug a hole to place it in and then we covered it with debris. The top of the cup was to be flush with the ground but have you tried to dig Texas soil?! If I insisted on having them dig deeper I am sure there would be some sort of child labor law called into question. Besides we were being eaten by mosquitoes all the while so we were eager to get back inside.
The next morning we uncovered the hotel and brought it inside. We poured out the contents into a larger container and looked for critters with the help of Sophie's magnifying glass. We were successful! We counted one ant, one tiny spider, and 7 baby rolly polly bugs. We discussed how that was 1 insect total, as spiders and rolly polly bugs do not meet the insect criteria. They just have too many legs--end of story.
On another day we got up close and personal. We noted that when we look in our backyard we don't really notice any bugs living there. We laid a 6 foot piece of yarn in a circle on the grass in our backyard. We got down and looked through the grass for a few minutes. We saw 4 ants, 3 tiny flying insects, and 2 spiders which we grouped into the arachnid category.
We then went from garden container to garden container looking for bugs and saw some houseflies in addition to more ants. We also noted an earthworm (nematode), spiders (yet more arachnids), and a rolly polly (crustacean). We did see a large swallowtail butterfly visit our yard and even come as close as 1 foot from us. Neal showed a picture of a leaf bug that we startled or that startled us when Neal and I were out harvesting the garden after the kids had already gone down--a cool find.
We had fun getting to know the insect world. I'm sure grandpa would be proud of our research efforts.
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