Sunshine has been begging for her own insect activities just like her siblings.  I was finally able to make her wish become a reality.  

Check out Sunshine's Insect Unit for Tots with Free Printables!

She couldn't be happier. 

I'm so pleased with how each and every activity and printable turned out.  

We hope you enjoy them too!

Here's what we've been up to!

Insect Unit for Tots with Free Printables

A is for Ant

Sunshine will press her finger into the washable black ink, and then use it to make little ants on the letter A.  Three finger prints in a row makes one ant.  

I'm interested to see how she does for several reasons.  Sunshine doesn't like getting her hands dirty.  She has weak finger muscles, rarely using her pointer finger.  And, I can't forget, she's scared of ants. 

I'm hoping by the end of the week this activity will improve all of the above concerns by just a little bit.  And, perhaps, she'll even be able to identify the letter A when she sees it.

Source: I created this printable as part of my Insect Unit for Tots Printable Pack 1.  This is a subscriber's only freebie.  See directions at the bottom of this post on how to access your free copy.

Bumblebee Number Match Up

This is by far my favorite activity and printable on the shelves this week. I'm so pleased with how it turned out.  

I have had absolutely no luck teaching Sunshine to count.  To this day, I have never heard her count to three.  

However, when I ask what a number is, she always responds with a number.  When we do sorting and match up activities she does fabulous.  Perhaps, she can pick up numbers a different way.

There are ten flower number cards.  Each bee, also has a number on it.  

Sunshine will match up the bees to their corresponding flower cards.  The bees attach to the flowers with velcro.  

I won't start with all ten cards, probably only four. 

When she has those mastered, I'll introduce more.  As she does the activity I can give her a very basic mini lesson about how bees collect pollen from flowers.

If your kiddo can count, I've included bumblebees without numbers to use as counters.  These can be placed below the cards.

Source: I created this printable as part of my Insect Unit for Tots Printable Pack 1.  This is a subscriber's only freebie.  See directions at the bottom of this post on how to access your free copy.

Ladybugs are Red

Sunshine is still unable to identify her colors, however, she can sort them beautifully.  

When asked what color something is, she always responds with a color, even if it's the wrong one.  

I'm hoping this activity will help her discriminate between colors and also help with fine motor skills.

Sunshine will dip her brush in water and then select the correct color to paint her ladybug.  A ladybug figure has been provided as a control.  We'll see how she does!

Source:  I found a simple coloring page of a ladybug online to use for this activity.

Insect Two Piece Puzzles

Sunshine has mastered the one piece knob puzzles, however she's still not ready for multiple piece puzzles.  

In this activity, she'll sort insect pieces and match up the correct halves.  

Chances are I won't use all six puzzles at first, but as the week progresses, I'm hoping she'll work up to that.

Source: I created this printable as part of my Insect Unit for Tots Printable Pack 1.  This is a subscriber's only freebie.  See directions at the bottom of this post on how to access your free copy.

Decorating a Butterfly

This activity is to help with Sunshine's fine motor skills, especially her grasp.  She will place the pom poms in the spots provided, decorating a butterfly.  

I had her practice this one already to see if she would become frustrated with it, and to see if the pom poms would fall out too easily.  

The only time the pom poms did fall out was when she wasn't looking, and accidentally hit them with her hand.  Otherwise, the activity worked beautifully.  

As she decorated her butterfly, we practiced color identification.

Note:  Sunshine no longer puts objects in her mouth.  If your tot does, I suggest using food for this activity such as Trix Cereal, M&Ms, etc.  Just like with all activities in this post, make sure you are supervising your tot 100% of the time.

Insect Play Dough Activity

A tot unit wouldn't be complete without a play dough activity.  This week Sunshine will practice stamping using play dough.  

Once again, her hand and finger muscles are very weak.  I'm hoping this activity will help her increase the strength she needs for future fine motor activities.

We're using Melissa and Doug Butterfly stamps in our playdough this week.

Insect Instruments

Sunshine loves music and dancing.  I thought it might be fun to incorporate instruments with dancing, as we listen to songs like Laurie Berkner's Buzz, Buzz, Buzz song etc.

Insect Sensory Bin

I'm super excited about this sensory bin.  Sunshine's not a fan of sensory bins, so I went a new route with this one.  Food is a fabulous motivator!  What appears to be dirt is actually chocolate pudding topped with Oreo Cookie crumbs.  I'm using Melissa and Doug insects.

Once Sunshine gets over the initial freak out of getting her hands dirty, I'm hoping she'll continue to play knowing it's chocolate, and she can lick her fingers if she feels the urge.  (Obviously I'll be making a new bin each day.)  I love the fact that the cookies add texture to the pudding.

That's our week!  She's so excited about it and can't wait to get started.  For those interested in the printables, follow the directions below.

Directions on How to Obtain Subscriber Only Freebies

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3. Open the thank you message you receive after subscribing. (Be sure to check your spam folder, as sometimes it ends up there.)

4. Click the confirmation link in the thank you message.

5. Once the confirmation is complete, you will receive another message with the Subscriber Only Freebies Link and Password.

6. Click on link and type in password. (The password is cap sensitive.)

7. Find the printable pack you are looking for listed in alphabetical order, click on it, and viola!

We hope you enjoy your free printable.

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