Bugs, bugs, bugs Summer 1 2026

RATIONALE:

The insects in the school grounds are unhappy and feel neglected, so the children will set to work to find out more about the creatures that could live around our school. They will use scientific skills to investigate and research a range of micro habitats, the insects which live there, life cycles and food chains. The children will use their reading skills to explore a variety of texts, in order to write instructions for beekeeping, humorous bug-related stories and detail non-chronological reports on a range of minibeasts. They will watch animals in the classroom, such as worms and the development of caterpillars into butterflies. Finally, realising that they need to upgrade and revamp the “Bug Hotel”, design and make more places for the minibeasts in the school grounds and provide more interesting and suitable places for the insects to live.

HOOK:

The classroom has been invaded by minibeasts, they are not happy with the school grounds. They have been forgotten! The beautiful Bug Hotel has been neglected. There is a note from the bugs explaining their situation and asking if we really know anything about the creatures that would like to live in our school grounds. What are we going to do about it?

Bug Hunt in the school grounds

We decided to go and look for ourselves in our outdoor areas to see if we could find any bugs. We did not find nearly as many as we expected. We found ants, worms, woodlice, slugs, snails and a wasp. We also looked at the bug hotel and the school grounds and decided that we needed to improve the bug habitats.

After our bug hunt at school we decided we needed to look at different microhabitats and the minibeasts who live in them. We visited Hinton Ampner, a beautiful National Trust property with amazing grounds which proved perfect for finding minibeasts! We found centipedes, ladybirds, spiders, woodlice, ants, slugs, snails, butterflies and more! A big thank you to all the adults who came to help us on our great trip.