Minibeasts

Use JIT Infant Toolkit “Paint, Animate and Mix” tabs to create a simple fact book about minibeasts by creating a series of digital drawings.

LAUNCH RESOURCE

Within your school environment or local green space, ask your students to go on a minibeasts hunt.Ask your students to collect the data by using a simple tally sheet. Once the students are back in class ask your students to curate the data into JIT Infant Toolkit “Pictogram”. Students could even draw their own bugs or use the clip art provided.

LAUNCH RESOURCE

Use JIT Infant Toolkit “Turtle” and the butterfly/flowers template; ask your students to give the least amount of instructions/directions to get the butterfly to each flower.

LAUNCH RESOURCE

Explore the life cycle of Butterflies, within this speaking online book with I-Board.
It is one of a set of six 'listen-and-read' explanation books. Pupils can learn about the life cycle of a butterfly by browsing through this book. Turn the pages and click the loudspeaker to hear the text narrated. There are a range of other i-board activities based around butterflies, such as an interactive Butterflies life cycle.

LAUNCH RESOURCE

Explore the properties of mini beasts with this sorting activity within I-Board. Ask pupils to propose 'yes/no' questions that will sort a number of minibeasts using a tree diagram. (* Tip: start with two or three creatures and add more into the tray once the concept is more secure.)
Choose the minibeasts on the first screen by dragging them into the tray one by one. On the sorting screen, add labels with questions and drag the arrows onto the screen to denote 'yes' or ‘no’.

LAUNCH RESOURCE

Explore the properties of minibeasts with this sorting activity within I-Board.
Use the text and pictures to gather the data required for the index cards (click the right pointing arrow to send the picture and title to the card). After completing several cards, ask pupils to propose questions and answer them by sorting them into labelled sets, you could do this as a carpet time activity and have your students explore various toy minibeasts and then ask children to describe them, and add the details to the digital card together.

LAUNCH RESOURCE

Explore data handling with minibeasts, within this activity from I-Board - Insect Survey to zoom in on different parts of the picture to count the minibeasts. Use the three sets of data to prompt a range of comparison questions.
Investigate which minibeasts are in the scene - where are they found? This could be used as a preliminary activity before carrying out a survey in the school grounds and plotting the results.

LAUNCH RESOURCE

Explore the properties of minibeasts with this digital activity within BusyThings. Draw a picture of a minibeast. Experiment with different colours and textures and add wings, legs, antennae and eyes! Questions you can ask: What does your minibeast like to eat? Where does it live? Does it have any special features? Can it fly?

LAUNCH RESOURCE

Explore the properties of minibeasts with this digital activity within BusyThings. Demonstrate knowledge of minibeasts with this labelling activity.

You can also save this activity as a PDF and use it as a table top activity.

LAUNCH RESOURCE

Explore the life cycle of a butterfly with this interactive digital life cycle tool within ‘BusyThings’.
Simple choose a template and draw in or add photos of the the stages of a butterfly’s life cycle. Questions you could ask - Have you seen a butterfly? What colour was it? Have you ever seen a caterpillar?

LAUNCH RESOURCE

Explore symmetry and pattern with this Butterfly within ‘BusyThing’. Choose a minibeast and colour it in. Try out all the different colours, textures and stamps. Notice how all your marks are symmetrical! Discussion points: What kind of mini-beast have you made? How many legs does your minibeast have? How many wings does it have? What does your minibeast like to eat? Where does it like to live?

LAUNCH RESOURCE