Stay informed with our email newsletters.
Click here to give feedback on our pages for educators.

Self-guiding in the Galleries
Pre & Post Visit Resources
Bug Out of the Box

All Grades


Scroll down the page to find items on the menu below or click on a link to jump to an item.


During your visit
Things You Don't Want to Miss
Scavenger Hunt
Go to Bug Out of the Box

Before and After Your Visit
Important Terms and Concepts
Activities
Print and Web Resources


Click here for printable version of all resources listed above

Things You Don't Want to Miss

Kids' Activities (In gallery 2  Wow!)
Create your own bug collage and display it for other visitors to see.  At the "Bugs in Vogue" station, you can try on various bug adaptations and see how you size up!










Mini Bug Hunts (In gallery 2  Wow!)
Challenge yourself to find all the bugs hidden in a Berkshire habitat, or check out the box of bug mimics to see if you can spot all of the insect masters of disguise.







Bug "Wall Paper"  (In gallery 3  Awesome!)
A miniature room displays Jennifer Angus's bug wallpaper. Believe it or not, the pattern you see here is actually made up of individual bugs pinned to the wall. There are so many striking bugs displayed here, that many people ask Jennifer where she gets them. She gets them from reputable insect dealers.  None of the insects on display are endangered.  

Here's what Jennifer says when people wonder if her display is ethical: "Insect dealers, scientists, and myself are of the belief that if we encourage tribal peoples to continue collecting insects, thus providing a livelihood, then they will have less reason to cut down the rain forest which the insects inhabit. It is ecologically sound.  They are a renewable resource."

 
Live Bugs! (Throughout Exhibit, Berkshire Backyard)
Live bug displays you'll find throughout the exhibit add a dynamic element. For example, you can watch silkworms eat mulberry leaves and see their silky cocoons. Or stop by our Berkshire Backyard gallery to see live bees in an observation hive.







Scavenger Hunts to do in Bug Out of the Box

Hunt for Grades PreK - 2

Hunt for Grades 3 - 5

Hunt for Grades 6 - 12

Elementary

Butterfly Metamporphosis Craft
Materials for each student: 1 toilet paper tube, 1 coffee filter, construction paper, piece of yarn or string, small pompoms, small googley eyes. Students can create a caterpillar by gluing several small pompoms together, and adding eyes. Wrap the coffee filter loosely around the toilet paper tube, and tack in place with a little glue to make a chrysalis. For colored chrysalids, the filters can be dipped in a solution of water and food coloring (and dried) ahead of time. Students can use any stiff paper like construction paper to create their butterflies. You may ask them to think about their butterfly's defenses as they color it (Does it have fake eye spots? Colors like bright orange that warn that they taste bad? Camouflage?). Use the yarn to attach the caterpillar to one end of the chrysalis and the butterfly to the other end. That way the caterpillar can go into the chrysalis and the butterfly can emerge from the other end.

Bug Charades
Students take turns pretending to be a particular bug, while the rest of the class guesses their identity. This is a fun way to review of the bugs seen at the Museum, as well as their unique adaptations.

Insect Safari
In the early fall or late spring, take the class on a walk outside, looking for insect life on the ground, on plants, and in the air. Ask students to try to find as many insects as they can, keeping a list of what they see. If they see an insect and they are not sure what it is, they should draw a picture and write down observations that might help to identify it like color, size, body parts, etc. Afterwards, make a class list of all of the insects (and other arthropods) you saw, and discussing any mysterious insects that students saw but could not identify. Encourage other students to share theories about what the mysterious insects might have been. Helpful field guides are in the printed resources section below.

Assessment: Invent an Arthropod
Once students have learned about the adaptations of real insects, they will have fun putting their knowledge to work inventing new, imaginary species. Using old magazines, cut out pictures that show different kinds of potential habitats. Ask each student to pick a picture and then invent an insect that might live in that habitat. Students can draw or collage a picture of their insect. Make sure to label all of its body parts; give their insect a name; then write a paragraph about their insect telling what it eats, how it moves, and how it protects itself in its habitat. Then ask students to exchange habitat pictures with someone else. Ask them to consider how life would alter for their creature if some sudden change, such as a volcanic eruption, occurred in their habitat.

Collect a Spider Web
You can preserve a spider's web without harming the spider. Spiders weave webs frequently and quickly. You’ll need hair spray, black construction paper, and clear contact paper. Take your class on a walk first thing in the morning to find spider webs. When you have found one, make sure the spider is gone and spray the web with hairspray a few times until it is stiff. Then cut the strands that connect the web to the surrounding environment with a pair of scissors. Have the piece of black paper ready for the web to land on. When the web lands on the black paper, spray it again so that it sticks to the paper. To preserve the web, cover it with contact paper.

Grades 6 - 12

Bugscope
Excellent site with links to various activities to do with insects in the classroom and the schoolyard. You can also send them a bug that you have collected and they will scan it using an electron scanning microscope and air it in a live session online.

Mealworm Experiments
Mealworms (the larvae of the darkling beetle) are an inexpensive and practical subject for student-designed experiments. This web site provides synopses of mealworm experiments designed by 7th graders, written by the students themselves.

I Dare You To Eat It!
This lesson plan from Education World guides you through the process of comparing the nutritional value of students' favorite foods with those of insects eaten by people around the world.

Ponding
Take a trip to a pond in the fall or spring for a fun, first-hand look at bugs in a natural habitat. Collecting is easy and insect life is abundant. Options include nets, glass jars, recycled buckets, or plastic tupperware containers. Bringing along magnifiers and laminated identification guides is helpful. Challenge students to find examples of different life cycle stages: eggs, larvae, pupae, adults, and nymphs. Ask students to consider how the bugs they find are connected to other organisms in the ecosystem in a food web.

Suggested Web and Print Resources

All of these resources, except those noted with *, are available through the Central/Western Massachusetts (C/W MARS) library system. Use the Berkshire Athenaeum’s on-line catalogue , to search for these print resources in Western Massachusetts.

A Sampling of Bug Out of the Box Artist Web Pages

Jennifer Angus (Bug Wallpaper)
www.jenniferangus.com

Catherine Chalmers (Cockroaches)
www.catherinechalmers.com/home.cfm

Greg Edmondson (Moths on Wallpaper, Caterpillar Sculptures)
www.philipsleingallery.com/view.php?todo=viewall&n=Greg%20Edmondson

Louise Bourgeois (Spiders)
www.pbs.org/art21/artists/bourgeois/index.html

Bennie Flores Ansell (Shoes)
www.benniefloresansell.com/

Paul Paiement (Hybrids)
http://www.paulpaiement.com/

Web and Print Materials For Students

Grades PreK - 2

Allen, Judy and Tudor Humphries.  Are You a Butterfly?  (Backyard Books).  MA:  Kingfisher, 2003.  Follows the life cycle of butterflies with illustrations.  Other titles in the Backyard Books Series include:  Are you an Ant?  Are You a Bee?   Are You a Dragonfly?  Are You a Grasshopper?  Are You a Snail?   Are You a Spider?

Beal Early Childhood Center's Butterfly Page
This Shrewsbury school has a butterfly greenhouse. This section of their site is easy for young children to navigate and understand, even if they are not able to read all of the text. It includes lots of photos of the school's students, their work, the greenhouse, butterflies, moths, and cocoons.

Carle, Eric.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  NY:  Philomel Books, 1984.  The
classic for young children featuring the life cycle of a butterfly.  Illustrated in Carle's classic collage style.  Also by Carle:  The Very Busy Spider, The Grouchy Ladybug 

Dussling, Jennifer.  Bugs!  Bugs!  Bugs!  (Eyewitness Reader Level 2).  NY: 
DK Publishing, 1998. Very simple text with lots of color photos.

Mound, Laurence.  Amazing Insects (DK Eyewitness Junior).  NY:  Alfred A.
Knopf, 1993.  A simplified version of eyewitness defining insects, and illustrating their adaptations for communication, defense, sensing surroundings and more.  Other titles in the series include:  Amazing Spiders,and Amazing Butterflies &  Moths.

Pallotta, Jerry.  The Icky Bug Alphabet Book.  MA:  Charlesbridge Publishing,
1986.  An insect-themed alphabet book, with a simple paragraph of information about each featured insect. 

Rabe, Tish.  On Beyond Bugs!  NY:  Random House, 1999.  Rhyming book
featuring the Cat In the Hat covering all the bug basics-- insect characteristics and body parts, definition of arachnid, insect senses, and interesting species.

Reasoner, Charles.  Who's Bugging You (A Sliding Surprise Book).  NY: 
Penguin Young Readers Group, 1997.  Simple text gives characteristics of mystery bugs, whose identities are revealed when you slide the images out, prompting the reader to guess and then pull.

Grades 3 - 5

BioKIDS
This link will take you directly to the insect page in this University of Michigan web site. From there, students can also search for other topics of interest, like arachnids. These pages have lots of images and kid-friendly information, as well as classification info, and sounds!

Leahy, Christopher. Peterson First Guide to Insects of North America. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1998.  The concise field guide to 200 common insects of North America.

Lowestein, Frank. Bugs. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc.,
1999.  A large, colorful, hardcover book that details insect behaviors, physical features, and ways of life that are totally different from our own. You’ll learn what is and is not an insect, how insects evolved, how they help and harm humans, and the fascinating details of their lives from birth to death.

Mound, Laurence. Eyewitness Books: Insects. London, Dorling Kindersley, 2000. A spectacular and informative guide to the extraordinary world of insects.  Superb color photographs of beetles, bugs, bees, and butterflies give the reader a unique "eyewitness" insight into the variety and complexity of insects, their structure, life cycles and behavior.

Needham, Karen and Launi Lucas.  Strange Beginnings.  Boston: 
Tradewind Books, Ltd., 2001.  Illustrations and brief text show the larva and adult versions of several insects.

Opler, Paul A. Peterson First Guide to Butterflies and Moths. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1998.  Describes and illustrates 183 butterflies and moths of North
America, and includes advice on butterfly-watching and butterfly conservation.

Snedden, Robert.  What Is An Insect?  San Francisco, CA:  Sierra Club
Books for Children., 1997.  Large color photos and informative text about characteristics that distinguish insects from their relatives, life cycles, senses, locomotion, defenses, and habitats.

Grades 6 - 12

American Museum of Natural History. Arthropod Identification.
Activities and resources for identifying arthropods.

Borror, Donald J. and Richard E. White.  Insects (Peterson's Field Guides).  MA:  Houghton Mifflin Company.  Insect identification reference.

Education World: "Don't Bug Me While I'm Eating"
A lesson plan for comparing the nutritional value of students' favorite foods with those of insects eaten by people around the world.

The Wonderful World of Insects
A good site for further research and information about insects.

Jackson, Donna M.  The Bug Scientists.  (Scientists in the Field).  Boston: 
Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.  Profiles of several scientists who specialize in entomology, including a forensic crime scene bug investigator.  With color photos. 

Lowenstein, Frank and Sheryl Lechner.  Bugs. NY:  Black Dog & Leventhal
Publishers, Inc., 1999.  Large format book with information and very large color pictures.  Focuses on insects, centipedes, millipedes, and arachnids. 

Milne, Lonus and Margery.  National Audubon Society's Field Guide to North
American Insects and Spiders.  NY:  Alfred A. Knopf, 1980.  Particularly helpful "thumb guide" in the front with quick-reference profiles of each major insect group and where to find them in the book. 

Nardi, James B.  The World Beneath Our Feet, A Guide to Life in the Soil.NY: 
Oxford University Press, 2003.  An in-depth look at different organisms found in the soil, their adaptations and roles within an underground ecosystem. 

7th Grade Mealworm Experiments
Web pages created by 7th graders describing their original meal worm experiments.

Bugscope
Excellent site with links to various activities to do with insects in the classroom and the schoolyard. You can also send them a bug that you have collected and they will scan it using an electron scanning microscope and air it in a live session online.

Hickman, Pamela. Bug Wise. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison – Wesley Publishing Company, 1990.  Learn about insects, arachnids and other arthropods with this easy to use book.  Explanations, identification, and fun acts are included along with 30 activities to do with children.

City Bugs
Although this site is set up for schools in San Francisco, it is a great resource for lessons, identification and links.

Smithton Consolidated School:  Mrs. Beggs' Kindergarten
A wonderful and almost endless compilation of activities and resources for a bug unit with young elementary students, created by kindergarten teacher Kelly Beggs at an Illinois school.  It includes photos of the projects and activities in her classroom.

Texas A & M University, Entomology Department:  Insects in the Classroom
A wealth of insect lesson plans for K - 8, organized by grade level and topic.

Using Live Insects in Elementary Classrooms for Early Lessons in Life. 
Activities and lesson plans from University of Arizona:  Center for Insect Science Education Outreach.  Early elementary integrated lessons about insects with targeted National Science standards.

Discovery School Lesson Plan Library
Lesson plans for K – 5 including animals, ecology, earth science and more.

Wangberg, James K.  Six-Legged Sex, The Erotic Lives of Bugs.  CO: 
Fulcrum Publishing, 2001.  With some risqué chapter titles, this one is perhaps best for teacher consumption only.  Informative and entertaining none-the-less.

Waldbauer, Gilbert.  What Good Are Bugs?  Insects in the Web of Life.  MA: 
Harvard University Press, 2003.  Best as a teacher reference for in-depth information on the roles insects play in ecosystems. 

The Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent Federal grant- making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities supports the Berkshire Museum.

< Back to School and Youth Groups Main Page