(upbeat guitar music) - [Miss Laura] Oh, hello, little learners.

I was just reading about ladybugs and it got me thinking that you might wanna learn about ladybugs and other insects too.

So I hope you do, because that is what we're learning about this week.

My name is Miss Laura, hello.

And I love to share my love for reading with all of you boys and girls at home that are watching.

Now, before we move on to our study of insects, I wanna tell you a story about a little insect friend I met, and I want you to try to guess what kind insect it was.

Firs, I'm gonna tell you this story with my hands too, so you can follow along at home.

I was camping one day and I put some spray on me, but there were these things buzzing around me (Miss Laura mimicking the buzz) and one landed on my arm.

Oh no, I felt a little sting.

And then I went swat, but it was too late.

When I lifted up, I had a bump and it was very itchy.

Can you guess what insect I met that day?

And that's right, a mosquito.

Have you ever been bitten by a mosquito?

Have you ever seen an insect anywhere around wherever you live?

Chances are you have because they're everywhere.

And someone told me that if we sing a nice song, that the good insects will come like ladybugs and they'll fly and buzz all around us.

So I picked one out special just for us.

Are you ready to learn it?

Hey, the tune is Mary had a little lamb.

So here we go.

♪ I have a little lady bug ♪ ♪ Lady bug, lady bug ♪ ♪ I have a little lady bug ♪ ♪ It's wings are black and red ♪ Hey, next, we're gonna see the little lady bug.

So you can put your hands like this to make eyes to really see it well.

♪ I see the little lady bug ♪ ♪ Lady bug, lady bug ♪ ♪ I see the little lady bug flying here to there ♪ Next it's gonna land on something, the ground.

♪ Now it's landing on the ground ♪ ♪ On the ground, on the ground ♪ ♪ Now it's landing on the ground ♪ ♪ Crawling everywhere ♪ And you gotta make your lady look, crawl everywhere.

That's my favorite part, but that'll bring all the lady bugs and other insects that speak English.

But what if our insects are bilingual?

Wait, what if they speak Spanish?

I thought, okay.

I better pull out a Spanish song too.

So I think you'll be able to follow along.

You have to know your numbers in Spanish, (speaks in Spanish language) - [Miss Laura] Are you ready, it goes like this.

(speaks in Spanish language) That means jump.

(speaks Spanish language) The mariquitas or lady bugs are sleeping.

So let's see if any insects appear because we sang our song.

Do you see any insects anywhere?

Is there one?

There is, is it right next to me?

Is it one that bites?

Oh, it's not.

It's a grasshopper.

Oh, hello, lovely grasshopper.

I'm so glad you're here.

I knew that our song would bring an insect.

So before we move on to our book and learn all about insects, come here, look, grasshopper, put him right there.

We have to learn some special words that are gonna help us understand the story.

So let me look behind door number one for our special words.

Here we go.

There are three of them.

Let's see, our first word is exoskeleton.

Can you say that word, exoskeleton.

That's right.

You might have heard the word skeleton.

A skeleton is what's inside of our body, that helps hold us up and allows us to move around.

Well, an exoskeleton is actually the hard part outside of a body, that protects an insect.

The next word is antenna.

So we see special letter a and there are two sensors on top of the heads of insects.

Now sensors might be a word that you don't know, but sensors just means it's something that senses something like your nose senses, something that smells, well insects use their antenna that sense things.

The third word that you need in order to understand our text is six legs and three body parts.

That's a lot of words and that is one of the characteristics of insects.

So as I pull out our story, start thinking about what you think an insect is.

And we'll see if our story tells us more.

So our story today is called, "Bugs are Insects" And it is a non fiction text.

That means everything in this story is true.

Nothing's made up, no talking animals here.

So let's see what's inside.

Bugs are insects, I think we're gonna see lots of scary looking and exotic looking and strange looking insects in there.

Okay, I gotta be brave.

I've gotta teach the boys and girls about insects.

Here we are, let's start reading.

There are many kinds of insects living all around us, and so are insects, so our crickets and mosquitoes like don't like mosquitoes.

So our butterflies and bees and look, there's an ant and a beautiful butterfly and a bee.

Have you ever seen an ant before?

Insects come in many shapes, sizes and colors.

They don't all look the same, but there's a way to tell if something is an insect, count its leg legs.

Count how many parts make up its body?

Ooh, that was in one of our words.

Six legs and three body parts, wasn't it?

I wonder how many legs an insect has, do you know?

Is it four, is it six or is it eight?

What do you think?

Is a ladybug an insect?

All insects have external skeletons called exoskeletons.

Remember that's the hard part outside of an insects body.

Our skeletons are inside of our body.

So you have a skeleton inside with parts that move.

Your skeleton holds you up and helps give your body its shape.

But an insect has a hard skeleton on the outside with parts that move.

The skeleton is like a shell around its body.

It holds the insect up and gives its body it's shape.

So look at the ladybug skeleton is on the outside.

Now does a ladybug have bones?

Can you investigate and let me know?

Because when I think of skeletons, I think of bones.

Not all things that have skeletons on the outside are insects.

Do you recognize this creature?

It's a lobster.

It has an exoskeleton, but it is not an insect.

How about a crab, is a crab an insect?

No, not an insect even though it has an exoskeleton, insects have to have other things to be an insect, let's read more.

Many insects have two pairs of wings and a pair of antenna.

So you'll remember a pair means two, hold out two fingers like this, gimme a peace sign.

That's a pair.

Sometimes the antenna are long.

Like those crickets or butterflies, sometimes they're short.

Like those of beetles.

Now do we have antenna?

No, although it would be kind of cool to have antenna on top of our head.

Then we can smell things with our head.

Now look at these antenna, are long and these are short.

But all insect bodies are divided into three parts.

Now you get to hold up the number three, it makes a w doesn't it?

Three parts.

♪ Head thorax abdomen, abdomen ♪ ♪ Head thorax abdomen ♪ Those are the three parts of an insect and they have six legs attached to the thorax.

Anything that has six legs and three body parts is an insect.

I'm gonna it out one more time.

Repeat, repeat anything that has six legs and three body parts is an insect.

So a ladybug has six legs and three body parts, is it an insect?

Yes or no?

What do you think?

That's right, it is.

Now look at a spider.

Lots of people think spiders are insects because they're small and they crawl around like insects.

It has an exoskeleton, check check, but we have to count its legs.

How many legs does it have?

I have to touch the scary spider.

I don't know if you can see, it has hair.

Oh, help me count, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, eight legs.

Remember an insect has six legs.

So a spider is not an insect.

Now we know that a lady bug is an insect, but is it really a bug?

We some times call insects bugs.

And many people think that two words mean the same thing, but they don't, I do that all the time.

I say, "Look, there's a bug crawling on me."

When I mean to say insect.

A bug is an insect with a mouth like a beak and a head that a triangle.

So look a stink bug is a bug.

So is a bed bug, they must love to sleep.

And so is a water spider, even though it doesn't have the word bug in its name.

But a ladybug's mouth doesn't look like a beak.

Its head is shaped like a triangle.

A ladybug isn't a bug at all, it's a beetle.

Beatles are insects.

So a lady bug isn't even a bug, even though that's in its name seems unfair to call it a lady bug, should be a lady insect and are all ladybugs ladies?

I wonder.

Different kinds of insects have different kinds of mouths.

They suck and pierce and bite or chew like the mosquito I told you about.

There it is.

Looks like it's on some skin.

And let's see they pierce your skin and they suck out some juices like through a straw.

Ew, but some insects like butterflies and bees do that with flowers, they pollinate.

Different kinds of insects, have different kinds of legs too.

Some have long back legs that are used for jumping and others have wide legs.

Some insects are good builders, ants build tunnels and look the be is building a hive.

Have you ever seen a bee hive before?

They're really cool.

They have a special shape.

Do you recognize that shape?

Can you tell me what it is, wherever you are?

No matter what they look like or how they live, all insects have six legs and three body parts.

Here are some of the creatures that you might find in your backyard.

Are they insects?

So right now I want you to pause.

If you're watching and check to see which ones are insects and which ones are not insects, they're all mixed together.

I'll give you a clue.

Look at this one.

Does it look like it has more than six legs?

Does that mean it's an insect?

Insects are all around us flying through the air chewing on leaves, creeping through the grass.

Scientists think that there are more kinds of insects than there are kinds of fish or birds or any other animal in the world.

Look in your own backyard and see how many insects you can find.

And always remember to count the legs.

So bugs are insects, but we learned in the story that not every insect is a bug.

And we learned about the many things that all insects have in common.

So let's take a look at our board and I'm gonna use my grasshopper friend to help us let's review some of the things that all insects have.

Even the ones that bite.

So they have antenna, let's see, oh, here they are.

My grasshopper friend has them and remember they use this to feel around and some are long and some are short.

They have a head, a thorax and an abdomen.

That's three different body parts.

So here would be the head, the thorax where the legs come out and the abdomen.

An abdomen is a fancy word for stomach.

Do you have a stomach?

Can you pat your stomach?

They have how many legs?

That's right, six legs, not eight, not five, six legs.

Let's count your legs grasshopper.

One, two, three, four, five, six legs.

All right, and what else do they have?

Oh, looks like I got everything.

Are insects small or are they large?

Are all in insects green?

No, all shapes and sizes and all colors.

And in our project place today, I'm gonna make a tool with you.

That's gonna allow you to inspect the insects around us.

Are you ready to move over there?

Okay, let's go.

Time to go to the project place.

I'll leave our grasshopper friend right here.

So in today's activity, we are going to be making some insect inspectors.

You might also call them binoculars and we're going to use these to go in our backyard and search for insects.

So if for this activity, you're gonna need paper towel roll, some paper glue, scissors, tape, stapler, whatever you have on hand, the most important thing you need is a paper towel roll like this or two toilet paper rolls.

The first thing you're going to do, is you're gonna cut them in half or in two pieces.

You're going to make a pair.

Remember a pair means two, just like a pair of antenna.

All right, that's exactly what I'm doing.

And this is kind of what they're gonna look like when they're together.

Ooh, I see you, I see you.

Next thing that we're going to do is we're going to decorate them with paper.

Now I found a fun way to do this.

First, you take your piece of paper, if you have any scrap or you can use aluminum foil as well, and you're going to take your glue and you're going to smear the glue on the paper.

That means you're gonna put quite a lot on there.

You're gonna cover it in glue, this is the best part.

It's almost like art with glue.

And then you're going to take your roll and kind of roll it up like this.

Rolling it up.

Just like that and take another little kind of stripe of glue down the side to really hold it together.

And I know what you're thinking, "Miss Laura, this is too long, I won't be able to see things. "

And you're right, if you look inside, you'll see my toilet paper roll is right in there.

So then you're gonna take your scissors and you're gonna cut down to where the toilet roll is.

And it's gonna be like wrapping a present because you're gonna take some glue all around, just like that.

And you're gonna fold it down, see?

And it's gonna make your Insect inspectors nice and sturdy.

So you can use them over and over again.

Don't you just hate making a toy and then it falls apart.

No, not here, a little more glue here.

All right, then we're gonna glue it all in and do the same thing for the other one.

Okay, here we go.

Remember if I go too fast for you, you need time to gather your materials.

You just hit pause or come back later.

My goal here is just to inspire you to try this project at home.

Here's the next one, should we do some pink?

Okay, let's do pinks Same thing.

We're going to put lots of glue on there.

I'm using squiggly lines, my favorite part.

Wait, tell me where to stop, tell me where to stop.

Okay, I'll stop, Next we're gonna roll it in.

Roll, roll, roll, roll, roll, there we go.

Put a little strip of glue.

You see how quickly I can make these?

I hope that you get to make these in your classroom.

If you happen to go to in person school, or you can make them at home because you can use them for a lot of different things.

And then I happen to have some glue already on these flaps so I'm just gonna put them in and you're gonna be much neater than I am or not.

Messy is okay too.

Again, you're cutting down until you see the toilet paper roll.

And then it's like wrapping a present.

Glue, glue, sticky glue and down.

Okay, now we have our two tubes.

Look, we're almost done with our insect inspectors.

Next thing you can do is you can tape them or I'm gonna staple them just for time.

You can glue them, but just remember if you glue them that you have to wait for them to dry.

Don't try to use them before they're all dry because what'll happen is you'll get glue on your nose.

Ooh, I wouldn't want that a sticky mess.

Have my insect inspectors here.

And you can decorate them however you like, you can put stickers, you can put your name, whatever you'd like, last thing I'm gonna do before we move on.

Just something else is take a little string and you can use some tape.

If you wanna hang them around your neck and just kind of put a little string there and then we'll become official insect inspectors.

You ready?

Here we go.

We can hang them like this and take a look like this.

And that's exactly what I'm going to ask you to do.

If you don't have your official insect inspectors or binoculars yet, you can use your hands, but don't tell anyone.

So I'm gonna show you some pictures of some insects and you're gonna use your hands like binoculars.

And you're gonna describe what you see, are you ready?

Okay, first I need you to close your eyes.

And then when I say, look, I want you to put your binoculars on, you ready?

Okay, here we go.

Close your eyes, do not look.

Close them, close them, close them.

All right.

Are you ready to see?

Hey, use your binoculars, what do you see?

It's a large beetle and look the is one of the largest beetles in all the world.

Look at his hand, holding that beetle, that's pretty brave.

Do you see it's kind of brown and it has brown wings.

What else do you notice about the beetle?

Are you ready for your next thing you're gonna look?

Close your eyes, close your eyes, close your eyes.

Do not look, no peeking, no peeking.

Get your binoculars out in three, two, one.

Get them out, what do you see?

That's right, it's a ladybug.

Look I know it's a lady bug because it has red and black dots.

And if you're looking very closely, you're gonna see another beetle right here.

Look at its mouth parts.

That looks very strange.

Now, if you notice right here with the lady bug, it has two eyes and look it's head and it's thorax and it's abdomen.

What else do you notice?

Let's do a couple more, are you ready?

Here goes the next one, close your eyes no peeking.

Ready?

I'm gonna tell you when, here comes our next insect in three, two, one, get your binoculars out.

What do you see?

Yes, it's a beetle.

It's a checkered beetle.

Notice it has a pattern of black and red, black and red.

Just like a lady bug, look this beetle is on a leaf.

You are fantastic insects specs.

I think we have time for one more.

So close your eyes, no peeking, no peeking.

I think I'm gonna give you one that's super colorful.

I'm gonna pick one out special just for you, here we go.

Ready in three, two, one binoculars.

What do you see?

A butterfly, that's right.

They're one of my favorite insects.

Do you have a favorite insect?

These are so colorful and so beautiful to watch.

All right, you can put your binoculars down.

We did so much today.

We looked at the insects and what makes them an insect.

So like three body parts, six legs, they have antenna.

I want you to review all of those things for homework.

We also sang a song and had lots of fun.

So I hope that you come back tomorrow for more insect, fun.

We'll see you then.

Bye.

(upbeat guitar music)