See the course info at ‘August Art Adventurers’
Hello and welcome to 'Into Insects’ - our theme for Week 1!
This week we will be learning all about the amazing insects that live in our parks and gardens.
Activity Sheet 1
What is an insect?
Do you know what an insect is? Use the first activity sheet to circle or colour in the animals that you think are insects.
Use the button below to see the answers!
Extra activity if you want a challenge:
If you want, you can also use the list of insect orders written below and join these to the insect they belong to. Here’s one to get you started – Dragonflies and damselflies belong to the order 'Odonata'. But what is an 'order'?
In the study of animals, an 'order' is a name that is used to group animals that have things in common. For example monkeys, lemurs and lorises all belong to a group of mammals called primates? Do you know who else belongs in this order? Us! Humans are included in the primate order.
The name of an order doesn't usually give us much of a clue to the animals in it. You will need to ask a grown up to help you look these insects up, and see if you can find their order online.
Activity Sheet 2
What do different insects have in common?
You can see that insects look very different! Some live in the land, some in plants and some can fly. But insects do have a few things in common.
Watch the first 3 minutes of the ‘Draw-along’ video for the Seven-Spot Ladybird to learn about them and to find out what the names are of their different body parts.
On Activity Sheet 2 you can find a list of the different body parts all insects have. These are:
An exoskeleton (this means they don’t have bones on the outside like we do, they have a hard outer shell that protects their insides)
A head
A thorax
An abdomen
Three pairs of jointed legs
Two compound eyes (lots of eyes like look like one big eye and work together)
One pair of antenna
Some also have wings, but these might be folded away underneath the elytra (hard wing cases that protect the wings).
See if you can label the different body parts of the Stag Beetle and then colour it in!
Once you’ve finished this activity you might also want to come back later and follow the step-by-step tutorial to draw a Seven-Spot Ladybird. You may want to use the Seven-Spot Ladybird Template, or you can draw your own from scratch using the video.
Activity Sheet 3
Magical moths
Some other insects you might find in parks, gardens or local wild spaces are butterflies and moths.
Butterflies and moths belong to the same order (insect family). Did you find out in Activity sheet 1 what this called?
Did you know…
There are 59 species of butterflies in the UK - 7 resident species of butterflies and two that migrate here every year. But there are thought to be over 2,500 species of moths!
Activity Sheet 3 shows some of the wonderful moths that live around us, even though we might not always be able to see them! Use the image below to look at the colours you need as you colour in your own picture. You can even cut then out, fold them in half and make them into paper sculptures!
Activity Sheet 4
Splendid Shield Bugs
Shieldbugs come in all sorts of patterns and colours. Some are very bright and colourful like the Blue Shieldbug or the Striped Shieldbug. Some are camouflaged like the Common Green Shieldbug or the Tortoise Shieldbug. Draw your own Shieldbug design using the template!
Nature Journal Week 1
This week’s Nature Journal activity
Let’s begin working on our Nature Journals!
Every week there will be new pages for you to fill in, helping you to record the nature you have seen all through August.
This week your Nature Journal activities are to:
Colour in and decorate the cover! You can even draw in the empty spaces and on the back if you would like to.
Use this page to draw the insects you find in parks, gardens or other wild spaces. Can you name any of them?
Use the Insect Record Card to make a list of the insects you find in August.
Use one of your own photos or look closely at an insect you find. Can you see anything that surpises you? What does the body look like? Furry? Scaly? What about its wings or legs? Draw this in the magnifying glasses!
Putting your Nature Journal together
Next week we will be looking at the different ways you can put your journal together, so just keep your sheets tucked safely into the cover for now!
We hope you really enjoy your first week of August Art Adventurers!
Don’t forget, if you take a photo of anything you make this week and email it to us at librarian@thelibraryofnature.com, next week you will be sent the first ‘Activity Achieved’ sticker along with you August Art Adventurers poster.
Have fun Art Adventurers and we’ll see you next week for ‘Wonderful Waterlife’!
Want to do more art? Why not try these?
Draw-along: Drawn an Emperor Dragonfly
Make Butterfly and Moth bookmarks
Colour a Death’s-Head Hawkmoth