Mini Beasts (1)

Series 286: Mini Beasts We see insects and other small creatures almost every day of our lives. These “mini beasts” are one of the first introductions young children have to the natural world. They come in countless varieties, shapes, colours, patterns and sizes and are celebrated in favourite pre- school nursery rhymes, such as “Incy Wincy Spider”, “Ladybird, Ladybird” and “The Ants Go Marching”. In this series of Play School, we explore “mini beasts” through craft activities, play, songs and stories. We are also visited in studio by some real-life insects: slaters, snails, worms and even a stick insect! Episode 1 PRESENTERS Andrew McFarlane – Karen Pang PIANIST Peter Dasent STORY BUTTERFLY, BUTTERFLY written & illustrated by Petr Horáček Walker Books Australia FILM Barron Gorge Walk (Play School, ABC) ANIMATION Incy Wincy Spider (Play School, ABC) IDEAS FOR LATER Make a garden diorama with green grass, a blue sky & flowers made from patty pans and pipe cleaners. Make some craft bugs to live in your diorama, such as the bottle top bugs described below. Take a walk in your garden or a local park and look out for “mini beasts” such as ants, worms, beetles and birds. Take a close look at the mini beasts you find (without touching them) and then draw or paint a picture of them. Tape or staple your pictures together to create a mini beast scrapbook! Plant some colourful flowers in your garden or a plant pot. Watch them as they grow. Do they attract any insects? SONGS Spots Are Great Composers: Peter Dasent & Mark Barnard Publisher: Origin/ Control Incy Wincy Spider Composer: Traditional Publisher: Origin/ABC Music Publishing Outside in the Garden Composers: Peter Dasent & Judith Keyzer Publisher: Origin/Control Flutter, Flutter Butterfly Composer: Lesley Lees Publisher: Ward Lock Educational Would You Like to Be a Tree? Composers: Peter Casey & Carissa Campbell Round and Round the Garden Composer: Traditional Publisher: Origin/ABC Music Publishing MAKE AND DO How to Make Bottle Top Bugs You will need: - Recycled plastic bottle lids, such as milk or juice bottle lids - Pipe cleaners - Safety scissors - Tape - A black marker - Sticker dots - Cellophane Cut a few pipe cleaners in half to make legs for your mini beasts. Tape some of the cut pipe cleaners to the bottom of a plastic bottle lid, so “legs” poke out at either side. Some mini beasts might have more legs than others, for example a spider has eight legs and a ladybird has six. Use a marker to decorate the top of the bottle lid with spots, stripes or any pattern you like. Add two sticker dot eyes. Tape a full length pipe cleaner to the bottom of the lid and bend it to create a handle. Make a few different mini beasts, each with different features. Some of your mini beasts might have wings, which can be made from a small piece of cellophane, twisted in the middle, and taped to the top of the lid. Animate your bottle top mini beasts! You might like to use them to tell a story, or sing a nursery rhyme like “Incy Wincy Spider” or “Ladybird, Ladybird”. MAKE AND DO How to Make Skittles You will need: - Coloured sand – we used red, blue, green, orange and yellow - Clean, recycled plastic bottles with screw on lids, such as water bottles - A funnel - A small plastic ball Use a funnel to fill each plastic bottle about a third of the way full with a different colour of sand. Screw the lids on tightly. Take your “skittles” outside, to a garden, park or somewhere with lots of room. Arrange the skittles close together on the ground. Stand about 2 metres back from the skittles and aim a small plastic ball in their direction. Your goal is to knock over as many as you can. This is a fun game to play with a friend or family member. Take turns - whoever knocks over the most skittles, wins!