Good Bugs, Bad Bugs

Tags: Class Ideas, bugs, outside, Fall, Spring, Winter, Summer, insects, ladybugs, good bugs, bad bugs, lacewings, bug hotel

Time : 45 Minutes

Author: Vicki DeBusk

Outline

Greeting and Review	Meet in your regular spot Remind students of garden etiquette.
Main Lesson	BUGS
Activity 1	Good Bugs, Bad Bugs Materials Needed: Book The Bugliest Bug by Carol Diggory Shields (optional) Good bugs poster Bad bugs poster
Activity 2	Release bugs, look for bugs Materials Needed: lady bugs or lacewing eggs bug viewers (optional) magnifying lenses (optional) individual laminated “Good Bugs, Bad Bugs” page (optional) Journals (optional)
Cleanup	Put back posters and any tools used.
Goodbye	Ask, “What is your favorite bug and why?” “How many bugs did you find?”
External References	Meet the Good Bugs Good vs. Bad Bugs in Your Garden
Worksheets	Ladybug coloring page Grasshopper coloring page Bee coloring page

Materials Needed:
- Book The Bugliest Bug by Carol Diggory Shields (optional) – located in classroom
- Good bugs poster (located in kid’s shed)
- Bad bugs poster (located in kid’s shed)

Read: (10 minute read) – you can do this inside on the carpet for less outside distraction, or over by the pond. OR just ask kids to name different kinds of bugs. After reading, ask: – “What were some of the bugs from the story?”, or “What is your favorite bug from the story?” “Why do we have bugs?”
Show the poster of Good Bugs – go through the names of the bugs, ask if they have ever seen these bugs. Explain why they are good for the garden. (They eat aphids or other bad bugs like mosquitos, root maggots, moth larvae and help pollinate.)
Show the poster of Bad Bugs– go through the names of the bugs, ask if they have ever seen these bugs. Explain why they are bad for the garden – (They eat the leaves, roots and stems of vegetables.) Also explain why we don’t want to use pesticides to kill them. (It is harmful to the watershed, pesticides are bad for us.)Instead we are going to remove them from our garden and put them somewhere else.

**Posters are located in the kid shed.

ACTIVITY 2 : Release bugs/hunt bugs

Materials Needed:
- lady bugs or lacewing eggs
- bug viewers (optional)
- magnifying lenses (optional)
- individual laminated “Good Bugs, Bad Bugs” page (optional) – located in the classroom teaching resources cabinet

Explain to the students that they are going to release some of the good bugs into the garden.
Ladybugs or lacewing eggs – follow instructions on the containers. It is fun to let the lady bugs crawl on your hands but beware that they can bite by pinching their legs together. Have the kiddos watch the bugs crawl around on the plants. They can use the magnifying lens to look at them more closely. Have the students name one of the bugs and draw a picture of the bug in their journal.
Refer back to the bug posters. Have the students look in the garden for bugs. Remind students that we should not be digging in other gardens and to return stepping stones they overturn. You can use magnifying lenses and bug viewers to look at the bugs more closely.
Using the laminated Good Bugs/Bad Bugs sheets, have the kiddos see how many of the bugs they can find.

(Younger grades) Get plastic bugs and using fishing line tie them to popsicle sticks for a pet bug. Bugs from Michaels, Amazon Bugs
Make your own bug – using toilet paper rolls, egg cartons, yogurt containers, pipe cleaners and whatever you can find, have students make their own bug.
Bug coloring sheets
Make a bug hotel