Go on a bug hunt. 

Hide plastic bugs around outside the house or a park. Use a bag, jar, or box to collect the bugs. (Add craft by making bug jars or bug homes out of boxes first.) If you’re more adventurous and the children are older, use magnifying glasses to identify bugs or ants. 

-Bugs Are Insects, by Anne F. Rockwell, Steve Jenkins (Illustrator)

-I Love Bugs!  by Philemon Sturges, Shari Halpern (Illustrator)

-Mayday to the Rescue, by Andy Mansfield (Edited by Sue Harris)

-The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle

Spider in the Web (2+ years)

Materials: Paper plate, black yarn, scissors, inkpad, and a black marker.

Description: Give each child a paper plate and inkpad that is washable.  Have them use their thumbprint to make a spider on the plate. Use the black marker to draw in the legs.  Cut a few slits around the paper plate and thread the yarn across the plate, wrapping it around the front and back until you have made a web.

Caterpillar on a Leaf (2+ years)   

Materials: construction paper, hole puncher, glue, and pipe cleaner or yarn.             

Description: Cut a leaf shape from a piece of construction paper.  Let your child use the whole puncher to punch out holes.  When they are done punching, have them glue on a piece of pipe cleaner or yarn for the caterpillar.

Footprint Butterflies (3+ years)

Materials: Construction paper, markers, crayons, scissors, and glue.

Description: Trace both of your child's feet (with their shoes on) on the piece of construction paper.  Cut out the prints and glue onto another piece of paper. Use a black marker to draw the butterflies body and antennae in between the two footprints.  Let the children decorate the wings.

Crawling Spider (4+ years)          

Materials: Paper plate, streamers, tape, yarn, stick, paint, paintbrush, and hole puncher.

Description: Decorate the paper plate, tape on 8 legs out of streamers to make into a spider. Punch two holes in the middle of the plate, and thread through the yarn and tie around the stick.  Children now can walk the spiders. 

Paper Caterpillars (4+ years)

Materials: Construction paper, glue, scissors, black crayon, and yarn.

Description: Cut paper into strips, make 3 or 4 loops and glue the ends together on each loop.  Then glue the loops together to form a head and body of the caterpillar. Draw in the eyes and cut and glue on the antennas.  Attach a piece of yarn to help the caterpillar crawl.

Finger Spiders (6+ months)

Description: Pretend that each of your hands are spiders.  Have your child watch your hands crawl like spiders.  Let the spiders crawl up their leg or hand while tickling them.  They will laugh and play back with you.

Worms in Mud:

Ingredients: Gummy worms and chocolate pudding.

Directions: You can mix the two and serve in pudding bowls, or serve separately and let the children dip the worms into the mud (pudding) themselves.

Ladybug Graham Crackers

Ingredients: Graham crackers, cream cheese, red sugar (sugar and red food coloring), and chocolate chips.

Directions: Spread the cream cheese over the graham cracker, then draw out a peace sign using a toothpick or utensil for the back, wings, and head.  Color sugar by pouring it into a Ziploc® bag and dropping a drop of red food coloring in and then shake it.  Use the chocolate chips to fill in the head and spots on the wings.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Movement: Use hand motions to this song.