Teacher Activity Guide: Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores Bugs
Updated: April 8, 2004
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Making an Insect
Materials
Construction paper or tag board, pipe cleaners, glue, scissors, colored pens, magnifying lenses to observe insects on the school grounds or pictures of insects.
Key Question
What is an insect?
Curriculum Links
Science, Art
Activities
| • | Have students observe insects on the school grounds using magnifying lenses or show pictures of adult insects to students. Discuss with students what they observe and the different parts of the insects that they see. Emphasize that all of the insects have three body parts (head, thorax, and abdomen), six legs, and two antennae. Help students construct an insect with all three body parts, six legs, and two antennae using the paper and pipe cleaners. Colored pens can be used to add eyes and other details. |
| • | Discuss with the students the classification of insects as arthropods and how arthropods compare with arachnids, millipedes, crustaceans, and other bugs. |
Use the CD-ROM
| • | Go to the back of the bus to the Experiment Machine to play the Build a Bug experiment, or choose wings that will help a bug fly in the Flight experiment. |
| • | Find Wanda's "What is a Bug?" report in the classroom to learn what bugs with eight legs are called. Visit the Meadow Zone to solve bug puzzles in the Bug's Eye View game. |
Recycle with Worm Compost
Materials
Compost bin, bedding materials, organic food waste, one to two dozen red worms/red wrigglers (Fisenia fetida), illustration or diagram of the digestive tract of a worm, resources describing how insects are beneficial.
Compost bins may be available through one of your local natural resources departments. If not, a sturdy one can be built using plywood and nails. Include a tight fitting lid and holes for air and drainage. A bin 3 feet by 2 feet by 1 foot will hold hundreds of worms. Shredded and moistened newspaper, cardboard, dried leaves, or grass clippings provide bedding. The bedding should be kept damp but not soggy. Worms can be collected from other compost bins or bought. It is important to use red worms since they eat food waste.
Key Question
How do bugs help?
Curriculum Links
Science, Language Arts
Activities
| • | Have students save organic food waste from their lunches. Fruits and vegetables and their peelings should be finely chopped and buried in the bedding. Cereal and bread can also be included. Add crushed eggshells at least once a week. Do not include meat and dairy products, as they will start to decay and smell. As the worms turn the waste into compost, new bedding should be added. |
| • | After the worms have turned organic waste into compost, discuss with the students what they have observed. Describe the digestive tract of the worm using an illustration or diagram. Discuss comparisons between the digestive system of the worm and our own digestive system. |
| • | Discuss with the students how the worms have helped. Have students use research materials to report on how other insects are beneficial. |
| • | As an extension activity, the class or individual students can conduct an experiment using compost to find out how seeds planted in compost grow compared with the same kind of seeds planted in other types of soils. |
Use the CD-ROM
| • | Visit the four different environments to find out what other bugs eat and how they are helpful. Find Carlos's report "The Good, The Bad, and the Bizarre" in the classroom to learn how ladybugs and lacewings are helpful to plants. |
Butterfly Garden
Materials
Seeds or plants that will attract butterflies native to your area, part of your school yard that can be used for planting a garden or containers for planting, journals for students, field guides to identify plants and butterflies.
Key Question
How do butterflies behave?
Curriculum Links
Science, Language Art
Activities
| • | Determine which butterflies live in your area and what plants they use for food. Plants should provide nectar for the adult butterfly as well as leaves for the larvae. Include perennials (hollyhock, purple coneflower, lavender, phlox, goldenrod), and annuals (cosmos, lantana, torchflower, verbena, zinnia). Shrubs (butterfly bush), vines and ferns can also be included. Milkweed is necessary for the Monarch larvae. Work with the appropriate school personnel to plant the garden. Choose a sunny spot in your schoolyard that is protected from the wind. If the soil is poor, peat moss can be added to enrich it. If a spot is not available, use containers appropriate for growing plants. Plant the seeds or seedlings in the recommended season. Include a shallow hole or dish in the garden that can be filled with water for the butterflies to drink. |
| • | As the plants grow and attract butterflies, have the students observe and record their observations in a journal. Provide field guides so students can identify the plants and butterflies. Discuss with the students what they have discovered. Focus on the behaviors observed. What do the butterflies eat? How do they eat? How do they communicate? How do they defend themselves? How are they helpful? |
| • | As an extension activity, observe any eggs, larvae, or chrysalises that are discovered. If none are observed, use other resources to illustrate the stages of the life cycle of the butterfly (egg, larva, pupa, adult) and compare the butterfly's life cycle with the life cycle of other bugs. |
| • | Check to see if there is a butterfly garden in your area and take a field trip to observe other species of butterflies. |
Use the CD-ROM
| • | Play "Bugs Are It" in the Pond to see if you are an expert on bugs and their behavior. |
| • | Go to the Back of the Bus to find patterns that attract male fireflies to females in the Firefly Experiment. |
| • | Find Dorothy Ann's report "Bug Life Cycles" in the classroom to learn more about life cycles. |
Habitat Bingo
Materials
Forty paper strips approximately ½ by 3 inches, container to hold paper strips, game sheets (see below), makers for game sheets, CD-ROM and other resources illustrating habitats of bugs.
Key Question
Where do bugs live?
Curriculum Links
Science, Language Arts, Math
Activities
1. | Have students use the CD-ROM and other resources to learn which bugs live in jungle, meadow, fresh water pond, and forest habitats. |
2. | Discuss with students which bugs they have discovered and which habitat each one lives in. |
3. | Choose six of the bugs that were discussed for each habitat and put the name of each bug on a paper strip, along with the letter that represents the correct habitat (J for Jungle, M for Meadow, P for Pond, and F for Forest). |
4. | Fold all the paper strips, put them in the container, and mix them up. |
5. | Distribute a game sheet and markers to each student. |
6. | Have the students fill out their game cards by choosing four of the six bugs that were chosen for each of the habitats and writing the names of the bugs in the squares under the appropriate letters. The four bugs listed under J must live in the jungle, those under M in the meadow, those under P in the pond, and those under F in the forest. |
7. | Choose a type of bingo to play. The type chosen describes which part of the card students need to cover with markers to win, such as top row bingo, diagonal bingo, or whole card bingo. |
8. | Draw strips from the container randomly and announce the name of each bug and its habitat. |
9. | Students use markers to cover each bug that they have listed in the correct habitat until someone has "bingo". | • | Change the bugs for each habitat | | • | Increase or decrease the number of bugs the students can choose from for each habitat | | • | Have students fill out their game cards from a list of names of bugs that does not include their habitat | | • | Research bugs from other habitats and add new columns to the game cards |
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Use the CD-ROM
Visit all the habitats and make a poster in each one. Find the missing bugs and return them to their correct terrarium.
Concentrate on Defense
Materials
Construction paper or tag board squares approximately 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches (4 for each student), coloring pens or crayons, CD-ROM and other resources describing how bugs defend themselves.
Key Question
How do bugs defend themselves?
Curriculum Links
Science, Language Arts, Art
Activities
1. | Have students use the CD-ROM and other resources to learn how bugs defend themselves and discuss with the students the various defense mechanisms of bugs that they have discovered. Of the bugs discussed, choose 8 or more that represent a variety of types of defense mechanisms for a Concentration game. |
2. | The game will be played with matching cards-one card will name the defense mechanism and the matching card will name a bug that uses that defense mechanism. For example, a card with the title "Mimicry" would match a card with the name "owl butterfly". |
3. | Have students work in groups of 3 or 4 to make the game cards using the construction paper or tag board squares and coloring pens or crayons. Each student should make two pairs of cards and no two pairs in one group should be the same. If students would like, they can add an illustration of the bug on the card with its name. It is important that the backs of the cards remain blank. When a group has completed their game cards, have the group play the game with their own cards or exchange game cards with another group. To play the game, all of the matching cards are placed randomly on a playing surface with the blank side up. The students take turns turning over two cards. If the cards match, that pair is kept by the player and the player takes another turn. If the cards do not match, the cards are kept in the same positions blank side up and the next player takes a turn. When all the cards are matched, the player with the most cards wins. |
To vary the game, try the following:
| • | Change the game cards |
| • | Use more matching cards in a game |
Use the CD-ROM
Find Phoebe's report "Defense Mechanisms" in the classroom to learn how bugs defend themselves.
Go to the back of the bus and play the Battle of the Bugs experiment to see bugs defend themselves.
