Click Beetles won't bug you

The kids found an Eastern-Eyed Click Beetle in the backyard over the weekend and we've been "bugging" the subject quite a bit. Dad caught a second one, so now we have two living in a mason jar with flowers, grass and dirt. They are both named Seed.

We picked up one of my daughter's friends on the way to the library to get Eric Carle's "The Very Clumsy Click Beetle," and enjoyed a fun bug study for the day. (We also discovered Carle's "The Very Quiet Cricket" and "The Very Lonely Firefly" which are extremely charming as well.)

For lunch, I made Beetle Sandwiches for the kids. Using hot dog buns, I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with pretzels for the legs and antenna and raisins on it's back for the "eye-spots".


We colored various beetle pages and while it was raining outside the kids ate popcorn and watched "A Bug's Life."


For a craft, we made Click-Beetles out of plastic spoons. Click-Beetles are named so due to the "click" sound they make when they flip themselves back over after laying on their back playing dead to predators. Using black construction paper, white-out, glitter glue, pipe twists and google eyes, we made the top of the beetles on the back of the spoon. When it is on it's back (spoon face up), the kids can tap the tip of the spoon to flip the bug back over. We used tiny google-eyes for the bug's real eyes and bigger ones for the eye-spots it has on it's back. I had all the materials on-hand and they had fun flipping them all over the table.


When we were done the kids created their own bugs and butterflies, drawing on meadow scene paper from Melissa & Doug's Complete the Picture pad, which I had bought a while back at Minds in Motion.

I also threw together a quick cd of fun bug songs for the girls to each have (and yes, I knew prior that the Christian song would be okay for this family, I wouldn't have included it otherwise).

BUG SONGS!
1. The Christian Bug Song
2. BUGS
3. I Wanna be a Beetle
4. So Many Bugs out there
5. The Insectabet
6. The Lady Bug Picnic
7. Icky Insects

It was a fun day. My kids recently got a toy microscope we picked up for $3 that has little bug-slides and uses a flashlight for the reflective mirror to see through it. It's a perfect introduction to the concept of microscopes and science study for this age.