SchoolArts - May/June 2009

Going

Buggy! Jordan, age five.

Early Childhood Studio Lesson

Heather White

Are you looking for an engaging art lesson that integrates art, science, and children’s literature? Then this lesson may work for you and your students. Early childhood science curriculums include the study of bugs and insects. Combine this topic with a cute story about bugs and a project that includes working with clay, and the result will be a classroom filled with happy children.

The Squeegy Bug As a motivation, I begin this lesson by reading the story, The Squeegy Bug by Bill Martin, Jr. and Michael Sampson. I use a chart or library book that illustrates insect body parts to discuss the attributes of Squeegy bug and other insects. We identify body parts, examine the eyes, and count legs and antennae. We

Ben, age five.

also observe that bugs and insects have symmetry.

Visualizing Symmetry To help students visualize symmetry, I have them take various geometric shapes and fold them in half. We observe that the shapes have a line of symmetry. We then look at our own bodies and find the line of symmetry. The next step is to identify the line of symmetry in insects.

Forming Insects

In making the insects, I demonstrate how to divide the clay into four pieces. I roll a small, a medium, and a large ball of clay. The balls of clay are used to make the head, thorax, and abdomen of the insect. The leftover chunk of clay will be used to make the eyes, mouth, or wings. I recommend using self-hardening clay since six nails will be inserted to make the legs, and two smaller, thinner nails will be inserted to make the antennae.

Students should be encour-
aged to score and moisten the
clay with water when joining
body parts. Earthenware clay or dif-
ferent kinds of modeling materials
can also be used to make the insects.
If using earthenware clay, the nails
can withstand the heat of a kiln
firing, but may have a flaky, dark
coating afterwards.

In order to keep track of each student’s work, I take a large piece of paper and write each child’s

name on it. Students bring their work to me when they are finished, I check for stability, and place the insect upon the appropriate name. The next time students come to class, I can easily pass the insects back to them. We use acrylic paint to finish our bugs, but tempera can also be used. Now, your students, too, can go buggy!