Bugs in the garden

Ages 3 to 5 Read and do together · about 15 minutes

Read together

Look! A small bug on a leaf. It has six legs.

We watch it. We do not hurt it.

Do it

1. Go to a garden or park. Look slowly on leaves, under stones and on flowers.
2. Count the legs on an insect. Most have six. A spider has eight.
3. Draw one bug you saw.
4. Put it back where you found it, and wash hands.

Talk about it

• How many legs does it have?
• Where does it live?

For the grown-up

Insects have six legs and three body parts. Spiders have eight legs and are not insects. Teach children to look, not touch, unless you know the creature is safe. Watch for bees, wasps, ticks and stinging plants.

Mark as done

← Previous lesson Next lesson →

Where this comes from

• NGSS Lead States, Next Generation Science Standards: For States, By States (National Academies Press, 2013), performance expectation K-LS1-1 (what plants and animals need to survive)
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Entomology collection pages on insect anatomy

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.