Home > Book Based Activities > Animals after the storm

Animals after the storm

We’ve had our bug finder out again this week and been looking at the summer bugs. It’s amazing to see what changes we have in the bugs in the garden throughout the year – but after a storm we found possibly our most exciting yet.

Bug hunting after summer stormsAfter reading the Very Quiet Cricket we’ve been on the look out for grasshoppers or crickets in the garden – we’ve heard them which was very exciting but hadn’t seen them. Then J and T disappeared outside and came running back to say we’ve found a bug.

grasshopperIt was wonderful – I was able to explain to J what it was – get out The Very Quiet Cricket Book and also our bug viewer and we set about looking at it.

bug huntingWhat surprised both of us was how green the under belly of the grass hopper was. Using a bug viewer is a great way for kids to be able to look a bugs differently than they would normally.

using a bug viewerJ is getting very good at using the bug viewer – he loves the double magnification that it has and will often swap between then looking at the different parts of the bugs to see what they look like. I must admit that I love his fascination with bugs it’s great to see and I hope to continue to encourage him to explore and learn about them as he wants to.

siblings learning togetherWhen we released the grasshopper it was great to see that J and T worked together following it as it jumped around the garden. All the time J was telling T about it how it looked, what it did and retelling the very quite cricket story to her as well.

I have been wanting to do the Movement Card Activity that Toddler Approved did with the Very Quiet Cricket as part of the Virtual Book Club and when the showers started again we moved inside and I got out the cards I had printed and we played being different insects.

Our book link and one that we have enjoyed before and continue to do so is The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle.

I love the images and the different sounds that each of the insects make – if you haven’t got this in your collection and you love The Very Hungry Caterpillar as well as having a bug obsessed preschooler and toddler then this should be on your next item to buy.

Author
Cerys Parker

Cerys is a marine biologist, environmental educator, teacher, mum, and home educator from the UK. She loves getting creative, whether it is with simple and easy crafts and ideas, activities to make learning fun, or delicious recipes that you and your kids can cook together you'll find them all shared here on Rainy Day Mum.

10 Comments

  1. Another great activity outdoors linked to a book. Lovely post Cerys and thank you for linking to Country Kids

  2. How magical to see your two little ones working togeather so well and with the tale of the very quiet cricket still fresh in there minds too. lovely pictures x x x

  3. Brilliant – there is nothing like seeing things first hand, the book will mean so much more to them now. thanks for adding this to the link up.

  4. We found the The Very Quiet Cricket in a charity shop but sadly the noise attachment was missing.I must get another book now so we can listen to the different insect noises.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.