A couple of years back my children were taken up with a fun game they learned at the library during a summer program. I’ve been meaning to make them their own version of the beetle drive game, and after we came across the book, Would You Rather…Dine With a Dung Beetle or Lunch with a Maggot? I thought the pairing of the two would be quite fun!
Spring is on the way – yesterday I saw a house fly in the kitchen, which was not the best of timings just as the childminding inspector was driving up to the front door…needless to say I quickly shooed the fly out of the window! We’ve seen spiders outdoors as well. Soon the sow bugs, slugs, and beetles will be everyday sightings as we’re out walking. I’m no fan of the creepy crawlies, but kids are curious about them. So in an effort to encourage their understanding and hopefully lesson their squeemishness to a degree less than my own, we learn about insects each year.
When we saw Would You Rather … Dine With a Dung Beetle or Lunch with a Maggot? (affiliate link, and for my UK readers, this is your link) it caught our attention, that’s for sure! The book introduces several bugs and gives you a choice between two or more…
Would you rather…
have a queen bee for a mum,
a water bug for a dad,
a stick insect for a brother,
or a millipede for a sister?
Then you’ll learn some interesting facts about each of the choices to help you make your decision.
The pictures are fun cartoonish illustrations so they are more fun than gross and creepy. This will help those of us not keen on looking at photos of real bugs. The information given about each bug is factual, and the combination is a neat way to have fun while learning.
There are four activities included at the end of the book to continue the fun and learning, and we’ve created a free printable beetle drive game sheet for you to download and use.
You can use this game with 2 or more people, and I’ve made both a full-colour version, as well as an ink-saver black and white version for those of us who count every penny or have children who would like to colour their own bugs.
To access your copy, simply sign up for our emails and you’ll find a link and password at the bottom of the emails that will give you access to this free printable, as well as all the past subscriber freebies that we’ve done.
I hope that your children enjoy this activity as much as mine have! Let us know how it goes in the comments below.
If you’re looking for even more bug books and activities for your children, here are some great choices from some of my friends:
- Insect books for Preschoolers that teach about maps, colors and sight words (Printables) | The Natural Homeschool
- Very Hungry Caterpillar Storybook Sequencing Stick with Printable | School Time Snippets
- Apple Print Ladybugs | Artsy Momma
- Butterfly Addition Clip Cards | Simple Fun for Kids
- Wooden Spoon Bee Craft | Easy Peasy and Fun
- Dragonfly Coloring Pages| Mrs. Karle’s Sight and Sound Reading
Kristina says
What a cute book!
The Natural Homeschool says
My children would absolutely love this book! They are fans of books like “It’s Disgusting and we Ate it” lol!
Crystal McClean says
I haven’t heard of that book, but it sounds like fun! We’ll have to look it up 🙂
Tina at Mommynificent says
Oh goodness, I’m just like you – so squeamish when it comes to bugs, and we get them all year round here in Malaysia!!! This book does look adorable though. Maybe I could handle it??? 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing this at Booknificent Thursday on Mommynificent.com this week!
Tina
Crystal McClean says
I’m sure you must get some huge bugs there! A couple were very large in Japan! Luckily I lived just far enough north that they hibernated in the winter.
Learning about different bugs and how they’re a part of the food chain, and what they can be useful for does help me……a little!