Earth Day Insects

Happy Earth Day!

I wanted to share one of my favorite earth day projects.  I heard this great idea from an artist in one of the education groups I belong to.  Using red or brown clay, you have the children create an insect (real or made-up. . . by the way - letting them "make" one up will help those who have limited ability - they can claim their squishy lump is a special kind of insect! It saves face.).  With this project do not worry about how much it looks like "something." 

Let the clay insect air dry (do not fire them!!!).  Once dried, let the children take them home to put in their gardens and yards.  OR you could put them in the school yard or garden. Over time, these little insects will disintegrate back into the earth.  I absolutely LOVE this!  Since it is air dried, rain will slowly (or fast depending on where you put it!) take layers of the clay off.  I like to tell the children that clay comes from the earth.

It is a great way to teach students about how some things decompose and return to the soil and others do not.  You could make an insect out of plastic and have the children put both in their yards to observe (or outside your classroom).

This is super easy to do and soooo cool!

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 You can also put your Earth Day insect in an outside planter to observe.

 I give each student a lump of clay.  The brown clay stains less than the red clay.

 

One student made a lady bug.

 Pencils are great for making marks and designs.

 Pretty darn cool. . .

 Looking a lot like a caterpillar.

 Look at that snake's face!  Yikes!  A perfect thing for the garden!

 A snail!

 Butterfly!