“Bugs” is one of my favorite lesson plans to do with the kids. There are a lot of yoga poses that if they aren’t named for bugs, we can make up quite a few that will work. I also like to use small bug catchers and plastic tweezers and bug catching nets to use in a sensory bin or two. Plus there are a ton of great books to go along with this lesson plan — many of the Eric Carle books (The Very Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Lonely Firefly, The Very Quiet Cricket). I just thought of those off the top of my head that are by Eric Carle. There are so many wonderful bug books you can get from your local library.

What I like about these bug catchers is that they are pretty inexpensive (I didn’t have to buy anything, but I tend to have a lot of weird stuff saved at my house), and aren’t difficult to make. You can also adjust how I did mine depending on the things you have at home. This is just what worked for me based on what I already had on hand. I know I get clear water beads at the dollar store and those come in plastic jars with lids that are already to go. I have so much of this kind of stuff I am trying to come up with ideas to use what I already had. I’m sure there are countless options.

You’ll Need:
water bottles (I used Hint water bottles because they are slightly more durable than most other brands, but not too hard like the Voss bottles)
regular sized canning jar lids (I had these leftover from a project where I used the canning jars but not the lids).
kitchen shears/sharp scissors
sharp knife
labels (optional)
foam bug stickers (I used butterflies, bees, ladybugs, flowers, and leaves)
strong glue/adhesive (that can bond to plastic)

Peel the label off the water bottle. I made labels with the kids’ names on them “Kylie’s Bug Jar”.

This served two purposes. One, it was an easy way to have the kids’ names on the jar and two, I put the label where there was a little adhesive on the water bottle and it helped cover it up.

Use the knife to puncture a line into the water bottle as though you are going to slice the top off. It’s just a place to be able to insert the kitchen sheers to cut off the top of the bottle where it narrows, which is the next step. Insert the scissors into the slit and cut off the top half of the bottle. On my Hint water bottles, there’s actually a little line that is a good place to know where to cut the top part off. It’s right where the bottle begins to narrow.

Try to make sure you don’t leave any sharp edges along the top of your water bottle. Use the adhesive to glue the canning jar lids on the top of the bottle. I am not sure how other jars/bottles fit together, I can tell you that the regular opening jar lids were a perfect for my Hint bottles. Let them dry upside down with the lid at the bottom.

Let the kids apply their stickers on the jar. This was actually a better activity than I thought because my three-year-olds were all about trying to peel off the waxy paper themselves even if it took them a little while. Most of them stuck with it until they could figure out how to peel it themselves.

Another thing I really liked about these bug catchers is they didn’t take me a lot of time to do the prep work before taking them to school. And the fact I had all the stuff at home already and didn’t have to spend any money and we reused the Hint water bottles. It wasn’t messy for the kids, they thought it was fun, and I thought the finished result was super cute. It would be great for preschool or just making one at home with the kiddos.