Lesson Plan- Inchworms

Nature school

May 20th, 2013

Inchworms

Welcome song

Letter of the day- I for inchworms

Facts:

-Inchworms are interesting! They are not actually worms- they are caterpillars. They metamorphose into brown moths called Geometer moths. These moths are like butterflies, but they are nocturnal!

-Inchworms are green, yellow, brown or grey. They protect themselves from predators by blending in with their surroundings!

-Inchworms love to eat oak tree leaves. Maybe we can find some inchworms by finding an oak tree and looking at its leaves!

-What do you think might eat inchworms? birds, wasps, lizards, spiders

-Inchworms can spin thread, like spiders! They use the thread they spin to drop to the ground

-Inchworms don’t have to drink water because they get all the water they need from the leaves they eat.

Pretend Play:

They move by looping their bodies. They do this is because they have three pairs of legs in the front and two or three pairs in the back, but no legs in the middle of their abdomen. So they move by bringing their hind end towards it’s front, over and over. Let’s pretend to be inchworms!

Fingerplay:

Inchworms

5 little inchworms crawling up my door

one fell off and then there were 4

4 little inchworms inching up a tree

one fell off and then there were 3

3 little inchworms crawling on my shoe

one fell off and then there were 2

2 little inchworms in the summer sun

one found some shade, then there was one

1 little inchworm tired from the fun

inched off to bed, then there were none

Craft: Inchworm bracelet

Pasta dyed green

Twine cut to the size of child’s wrist + a little

-have the children string three pieces of pasta onto twine. Tie around wrist

Books:

Inch by Inch

Math/Science:

Let’s all collect some little twigs, leaves, flowers, and sticks! Then we will measure them and see how many inches long they are. They we will make a little chart to compare!