Mosquitoes

SPECIAL TOOL
This tool was created in response to a special request received. (Open educ-poster-Yellow) Print. Use the poster to help children identify the color.

CIRCLE TIME
Deposit long clothing, insect repellent, and a beekeeper hat with a veil in a basket. Use the items to spark a conversation with your group. Ask them if they have ever seen a mosquito. What must we do to avoid mosquito bites? What must we do if we have a mosquito bite? Do other types of insects bite?

AREA SETUP

Watch out for mosquitoes
Draw or print a picture of a giant mosquito. Glue it on your daycare entrance before children arrive.

Educa-decorate-Mosquitoes
(Open educ-decorate-Mosquitoes) Print, laminate, and cut out the illustrations. Use them to decorate your walls or hang them from the ceiling.

Insect garland
(Open leaf garland) Print the leaves and hang them around the daycare. Have children make tiny insects and add them to your garland.

PICTURE GAME
The pictures may be used as a memory game or to spark a conversation with your group. Use them to decorate the daycare or a specific thematic corner. (Open picture game-Mosquitoes) Print, laminate, and store in a Ziploc bag or thematic bin.

Stationery-Mosquitoes
(Open stationery-Mosquitoes) Print and use the stationery to communicate with parents, in your reading and writing area, or to identify your thematic bins.

WRITING ACTIVITY
(Open writing activities-M like mosquito) Print for each child or laminate for use with a dry-erase marker.

ACTIVITY SHEETS
(Open activity sheets-Mosquitoes) Print and follow instructions.

Color by number-Mosquitoes
(Open color by number-Mosquitoes) Print for each child. Children must follow the color code to complete the picture.

OBSERVATION SHEET
(Open observation sheet-Letter J) Print for each child or laminate for use with a dry-erase marker.

VARIOUS WORKSHOPS
Have fun with these wonderful workshop ideas provided by Caroline Allard.

Construction/building blocks:

• Green straw (found in Easter baskets) in a container along with plastic insects. Children will enjoy making the insects crawl in the "grass".
• Provide only green, black, brown, and red blocks. Children can use them to create giant bugs.
• Assembly games such as K-nex and Magnetix are perfect for creating silly or scary insects.
• Drinking straws can be inserted one inside the other to create long worms! You can even organize a contest!

Arts & crafts:

• Plastic insects and poster paint. Children press the insects in the paint and then make prints on paper.
• Attach plastic or gummy worms to the end of a fishing pole. Dip them in poster paint and make prints on paper.
• Make insect crowns! A strip of paper and antennae are all you need!
• An empty toilet paper roll, construction paper wings, pipe cleaners for the antennae and a small quantity of paint make perfect bees or butterflies.
• A coffee filter with a clothespin attached in the center makes the perfect dragonfly or butterfly. Add a few drops of food coloring just for fun!
• A butterfly model and colourful tissue paper which can be torn and glued on the wings.
• A butterfly (or a ladybug) drawn on a transparent acetate. Add colourful sand and white glue to make a stained glass craft. It will look beautiful in a window!
• Two paper plates (one cut in two), a fastener, red and black paint... for a ladybug!
• Two egg carton sections, wiggly eyes, yellow and black paint, construction paper or tulle wings, and antennae... for a bee!
• Insect hole-punches.
• Honeycomb cereal glued to a square box to represent a bee hive.
• Brown, pink, or black yarn pieces to make a worm collage.
• Make fireflies with glow-in-the-dark paint.
• Make your own binoculars with two empty toilet paper rolls, string, and cellophane paper.
• Use string dipped in poster paint for worm paintings!
• Use a series of egg carton sections to make a caterpillar.
• Spread black or brown poster paint on paper by blowing through a drinking straw to create a spider shape.

Drawing:

• Insect, flower, and garden stencils.
• Insect coloring pages.

Role play:

• Create a beekeeper corner. Include a hat with a veil, a rain suit, a few bees (or other insects), a large square box (to represent a bee hive), and a few instruments such as a watering can, a shovel, etc.
• Create an insect hunter corner. Include butterfly nets, empty containers, plastic insects of all kinds, binoculars, cardboard reference cards which contain information about various types of insects, magnifying glasses, etc. Hang insect posters on the wall.
• Create a gardening area. Provide toy versions of gardening tools such as a watering can, flower pots, etc. Add gloves, a sun hat, a hose, and knee protectors.
• Dress up like insects.

Manipulation:

• Memory game related to insects with educatall.com illustrations.
• Puzzles with pictures of insects (homemade or store-bought).
• Modeling dough with plastic insects. Children will enjoy pricking them in the dough or making prints. Offer cookie cutters shaped like flowers too!
• Children can also use modeling dough or salt dough to create insects.
• Association games involving insects (insects which fly, insects which crawl...)
• Several insect illustrations. Children must sort them according to the number of spots, legs, etc.
• Association game with bees and flowers of the same color.

Pre-reading:

• Books about insects, flowers, etc.
• Butterfly illustrations and posters can decorate your area.

Pre-writing:

• Dot to dot insects.
• Activities in which children must identify the differences between two insect illustrations.
• Hunt and seek activities.
• Various activity sheets related to the theme.
• Game with educatall.com word flashcards.

Motor skills:

• Children pretend they are worms crawling on the ground in the rain.
• Obstacle course involving chairs children must crawl under like ants.
• Simon says... to act like insects.
• Treasure hunt.
• Deposit a jumping rope on the ground and invite children to walk on it.
• Pin the tail on the insect! Hang a large bumblebee on the wall. Blindfolded, children must glue the bee's sting as close to the right spot as possible.
• An obstacle race throughout which children must hop like a grasshopper.
• Children stand in a circle and throw a ball of yarn back and forth to create a giant spider web.

Sensory bins:

• A container filled with soil and real worms!
• A container filled with sand...hide plastic worms and other insects inside.
• A container filled with Honeycomb cereal.
• A container filled with water and a few Styrofoam lily pads and insects such as a dragonfly, a praying mantis, etc.

Science:

• Create a vivarium. Simply use an old aquarium or give each child a transparent container. Add soil, grass, and the insects you find outside. Don't forget to deposit a screen on top!

LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES
Word flashcards
(Open word flashcards-Mosquitoes) The flashcards may be used to spark a conversation with your group, in your reading and writing area, or even to identify your thematic bins. Mosquito, insect repellent, citronella, screen, proboscis, wings, antennae, screen house, bite, redness, small, camping

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND MOTOR SKILLS
Where are the insects hiding?
(Open tiny insects) Print. Hide the insects throughout the daycare. Invite children to search for them. When a child finds an insect, he must say, "I found an insect!" and give it to you.

Mosquito tag
Give each child a few stickers. Children must chase one another. When they touch a child, they must place a sticker on him to represent a bug bite. Children love this game!

Mosquito hop
Children stand in line. They crouch down so that they are as small as can be (like mosquitoes). The last child in line jumps over the other children. When he reaches the front of the line, he crouches down so he is small like a mosquito once again. The child who is now last in line does the same thing, and so on...

Where are the mosquitoes?
(Open mosquito hunt) Print and laminate. Hide tons of tiny mosquito illustrations throughout the daycare. Play music. Children collect as many mosquitoes as possible before the song ends. The child who finds the most mosquitoes may hide them for the next round.

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
Mosquito hunters
Divide your group into two teams. Identify spray bottles with colors. You must also have a card representing each color. One team will be the mosquito hunters (they will have the bottles) and the other team will be the mosquitoes (each mosquito holds a card with a color on it). The mosquito hunters must spray a mosquito (in summer, you may add water to the bottles). When a mosquito hunter sprays a mosquito, he must say, "I am (for example) the blue mosquito hunter!" The mosquito then shows his card. If it is the same color, the mosquito hunter keeps the card. If not, the mosquito holds on to his card and is free to continue playing. The game ends when all the mosquito cards have been captured. The mosquito hunters then become the mosquitoes.

Under a magnifying glass
Provide magnifying glasses and plastic containers children can use to capture mosquitoes or other insects in your backyard.

Outdoor mosquito hunt
(Open mosquito hunt) Print, laminate, and cut out. Hide the mosquitoes throughout the backyard. Encourage children to go on a mosquito hunt.

Insect hunt
Provide pictures of various common insects. Encourage children to search for these insects. Once they have captured insects, observe them with magnifying glasses.

Mosquito search
Search for real mosquitoes with your group. Show them how to kill them with their hands. Show children how a mosquito bites. Discuss mosquitoes with your group. What does a mosquito bite feel like? What must we use to avoid mosquito bites?

ACTIVITIES INVOLVING PARENTS
Recycle and reuse
Ask parents to collect empty insect repellent bottles. Clean them thoroughly and use them in your role play area.

COGNITIVE ACTIVITIES
Snakes and ladders-Insects
(Open snakes and ladders-Insects) Print and laminate. Use a die and gummy worms as playing pieces.

Dominoes
(Open dominoes-Insects) Print, glue on heavy cardboard, and laminate. This game is for two to four players. Each child picks five cards. Place the remaining cards in a stack on the table. Turn over one card. The first player tries to deposit one of his cards. It must match an illustration already on the table. Matching illustrations must be touching. The second player does the same, and so on. If a player does not have a card with a matching illustration, he must pick an additional card from the stack. If he is still unable to play, his turn is over. The game ends when a player has used all his cards.

Hunt and seek-Insects
(Open hunt and seek-Insects) Print and laminate. Children pick illustrations and search for the items in the larger picture.

Magnifying glass game
(Open magnifying glass game-Mosquitoes) Print and laminate the cards and board game. Cut them out and store them in a Ziploc bag or box. Children pick a card and search for the item on the board game using a magnifying glass. When they find the item, they deposit the card in the correct square on the board game.

From smallest to biggest
(Open educ-big and small-Mosquitoes) Print and laminate. Children must place the illustrations in the correct order, from smallest to biggest, using Velcro or adhesive putty.

Mosquito puzzles
(Open puzzles-Mosquitoes) Print, laminate, and cut the pieces. Children must correctly place the pieces to recreate the scenes.

MORAL AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
The mosquito dance
With the children in your group, invent a mosquito dance. Present your dance to parents or to another group of children at the end of the day.

EARLY SCIENCE
Mosquitoes bite!
Explain how when a mosquito bites us, it's really feeding itself with our blood. Using eyedroppers and red water (water and red food coloring), ask children to pretend they are tiny mosquitoes. Invite them to transfer the red water from one container to another using the eyedroppers.

Insect bin
Fill a sensory bin with various types of insects. Add containers children can use to "capture" insects, a few magnifying glasses, etc. You may also add soil and water to create a swamp-like environment.

CULINARY ACTIVITIES

My edible mosquito
Use a celery stick to represent the mosquito's body, carrots for the legs, liquorice pieces for the antennae and raisins for the eyes...and you will have a yummy mosquito snack! Be creative and add different ingredients!

ARTS & CRAFTS

Insect stencils
(Open Insect-Stencils) Print and trace the shapes on heavy cardboard. Children can deposit the stencils on a piece of paper, dip sponges in paint and dab paint over the stencils.

My wiggling mosquito
(Open craft-mosquito) Print for each child. Have children cut the various parts and join them together using fasteners where indicated.

Mosquito collage
Trace a mosquito outline on a piece of contact paper and cut it out. Have children stick pieces of tissue paper, confetti, cardboard scraps, or glitter on the mosquito shape. Add another piece of contact paper on top.

My little mosquito
Collect a few egg carton sections. Let children use them to create their own little mosquito. Offer plenty of arts & crafts material. The result may surprise you!

Fly swatter
(Open model-fly swatter) Cut a 30 cm x 10 cm piece of heavy cardboard for each child. Cut two half-ovals out of construction paper or rubber with holes in it (used to line drawers). Glue the two half-ovals together at the end of the cardboard piece. Next, children can paint and decorate their fly swatter as they please.

CREATIVE COLORING
(Open creative coloring-Mosquitoes) Print for each child. Encourage children to draw mosquitoes and other types of insects on the screen door.

COLORING PAGES
(Open coloring pages theme-Mosquitoes) Print for each child.

SONGS & RHYMES
Mosquitoes

by: Patricia Morrison

sung to: Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

Beware of the mosquitoes
Whenever you're outdoors
They fly around everywhere
Just waiting to take a bite
And when they do, you're itchy
It's so hard not to scratch
Beware of the mosquitoes
Wear your best bug repellent

Have fun!

The Educatall team