Insect Small World

These darling bugs are newly sprung from a package! And my kids just love them. The dragonfly is Bean's favourite, most likely because it has the word "dragon" in its name. :) Munchkin likes the centipede, most likely because it is orange and he's quite fond of that colour. 

So of course we had to make a small world for them to play in! Small worlds are our favourite type of sensory play. For this sensory bin we added ground coffee (which doesn't just look great, it smells great too! and has the perfect texture for dirt), dried grass and leaves (reused from other small worlds), rocks and our new little guys. :)

We went over the names of all the bugs and counted each of their little legs. We separated them by type: insect and non-insects, which was easy since insects have six legs. :)   

(And Bean looks grumpy because it's pouring out and that means no trip to the park today.)

We explored camouflage and they took turns hiding the bugs. The red scorpion and orange centipede stood out despite their best efforts. :)

They added rocks to build hide-outs for some of the bugs.  

And the cockroach spent most of his time basking on the rock. :)

Bean kept flying the dragonfly around and would swish it through the air and then it'd drop into the bin. Unfortunately for the other flyers, they were not as popular. Perhaps another day. :)

Bean made a silly face when I showed her a picture of a fly close-up. 

 Bean kept walking over to the windowsill where we have a potted plant, so I put it on the floor so they could play with it. This praying mantis made it its home. :)

Cinnamon sticks were used as branches in this little bug world. This one created a bridge between two rocks for the bugs to cross over. 

And Bean created a small home using the other cinnamon sticks. :)

This was a fun small world to make on a rainy day!

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