Little kids – specially boys, love bugs ! My little one loves looking at ants and anthills. Its a ritual, followed, everytime we go to the park ! He loves to watch those tiny creatures busy walking and carrying tinier pieces of food to their home. He even drops a piece of food once in a while for them to party on.

I remember one time, when we saw a grasshopper in the park !!! He followed it everywhere. Thankfully it did not land on the kiddo 😀 Same happened when he first saw a frog. He hopped after it and said “see mommy I am also a frog !

After taking him for a nature hunt the other day, I planned to make a small bugs sensory bin for him.

These are the things that I included in the bugs sensory bin:

• Plastic bugs
• Stones
• Twigs
• Leaves – different shapes and sizes
• Grass

The natural elements were picked and plucked from our society’s garden. I made the base by sprinkling a nice layer of grass at the bottom, then threw some twigs and stones here and there. I had some red colored glass stones, which I added for some color. For making some trees/ big plants, I stuck the leaves’ branches in one corner with the help of some playdough. Just make a ball of playdough, flatten the bottom and pierce the stick into it. You can see the same in the pic below.

Once I was done setting the bin with the natural elements, i threw in some colorful plastic marbles just for fun and some extra color. And finally, I added the bugs.

Though most of them are easily visible, I hid a few. Like, beetle was hidden in a corner, caterpillar under the grass – with just his head popping out and the cockroach under the single dried leaf that was put in the bin.

And finally, I laid the bin on the table for my little one to explore. I placed a few small plastic cups for him to take out the bugs and place in them.

He spent some time gazing and exploring the set up.

I don’t know if he was being dramatic or if he really was scared of touching the bugs; but he refused to pick them out with his hands. So I gave him a tweezer to pick them out.

And he set off picking and finding the bugs, placing them safely into the little cups !

           

The sweet little caterpillar (only bug he found cute) was given a little piece of grass to eat.

It was fun exploring the bugs’ world. It is helpful if you have some book on bugs to corelate with the actual ones. Alternatively use your ipad or laptop to show them the actual bugs and their habitat. Tell them what each one feeds on, where they live etc. Make bugs fun to learn !!

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