Bee-Boppin’ Bugs Activity Guide 
Companion to recording by Nancy Stewart 
 www.Nancymusic.com
(206) 232-1078

Lyrics for the songs on Bee-Boppin’ Bugs are included with the CD and cassette. The following activities may be used with those songs. Lyrics are included only when necessary for the activity. Check your local library for chilren’s non-fiction books on individual bugs and insects in these songs. (I was able to find books entirely devoted to ladybugs, cockroaches, fireflies, ants, bees, and even houseflies!). Even the youngest children will love these! Use these activities as a jumping off place, and then add your own. And just have fun!

Bee-Boppin’ Bugs:

Have children put hands up in the air and shake fingers on “beed-aly-bops” in choruses, while singing along.

Garden Party:

A great way to end the unit of bugs! Have your own nighttime garden party. Decorate room, including small Christmas lights (twinkling are great, because they look like fireflies). Have children dress up like different bugs, and put a piece of silver ribbon on the floor for “spiders” to dance on. Turn off the lights, and party!

Interesting Insects:

Have pictures of insects mentioned in the song (cricket, ant, dragonfly, housefly, honey bee). Before singing, discuss facts in the song,. As you sing, children can stand up and act out each verse as follows:

Cricket– point to ears, then knees as lyrics indicate

Ant– walk around pretending to be carrying a VERY heavy load

Dragonfly- bend arms at elbows, point elbows up for one pair, down for second pair. For last line, point right elbow up for 1, down for 2, left elbow up for 3, and down for 4 wings.

Housefly– Have children lie down on the backs, hands and feet in the air, pretending to walk on the ceiling.

Roll hands for “turn somersaults in the air”.

Honey bee– Children stand, flap wings, then move open hands along fronts of shins, as if putting pollen in
pockets in legs.

Add your own verses about other interesting insects!

Lovely Little Ladybug:

Discuss: The first part of this song is actually an old nursery rhyme. Farmers did, and still do bring in ladybugs to eat the bugs that harm their crops. But at the end of the season when the crops needed to be burned to ready the land for the next season, the farmers would recite this rhyme to get the ladybugs to leave so they wouldn’t be harmed by the fire.

Discuss : Ladybug species are identified by the number of spots. Cut out paper ladybugs in red, orange, yellow, and black, and put a different number of spots on each one. Give a ladybug to each child, and have him or her count the spots and say the name. Example: “This is a seven spot ladybug”. Using the melody of Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star (first 2 lines) sing: “Ladybug, here’s what we can do, we can count the spots on you” before each child counts the spots on a ladybug.

The Gift (The Insect Song):

This song is a lot of fun if you take a little time to make the props. You can make simple felt pieces and place in a “gift box”, to taken out as the song is sung, and placed on a flannel board. Or make pieces out of paper or cardboard, and attach a small piece of the comb side of sticky back Velcro to each piece so it will stick to the felt board.

One child can be the “brother” and hold the box while you or another child opens it and takes the pieces out.

Body (label with 1,2,3, to represent head, thorax, abdomen)

6 legs—pipe cleaners attached to a frame which fits over the body works well

2 antennae– again, pipe cleaners work well

4 fine wings– plastic wrap or leftover scraps of laminating material work well.

Five Green and Speckled Frogs:

Cut felt shapes: five green frogs, a brown log, , and a blue pond. Place the shapes on a flannel board and sing the song, moving the frogs into the pond one at a time as lyrics indicate.

Variation 1. Have children pretend to be frogs, and jump into center of circle (pond) as song is sung. You can either assign each child a number, or let all the children jump every time!

Variation 2. Fingerplay: Hold one arm in front of chest, for log. Place other hand on top of arm, fingers pointing up for five frogs. Place fingers in front of mouth and pretend to eat bugs. Rub tummy on “yum, yum”. Then place hands together in a diving position, and pretend to dive into the pool.

Bug Names:

Listen to the song, then have children think of other bug names that are funny! Ask children what names they would give to the bugs in the song, as well as others. Have children draw the “joke” insects in the song, as well as the ones they come up with.

Days of the Dinosaurs:

Discuss: Insects that lived with the dinosaurs. You can make a dragonfly with a 2-ft wingspan, and find other insects in dinosaur books.

La Cucaracha:

Let children play maracas and sing the chorus in Spanish. Listen during the verses. Folkmanis makes a wonderful cockroach puppet you can order from All For Kids Books and Music (206) 526-2768.

(chorus translation: the cockroach cannot walk because she is missing her hind legs!)

Firefly:

Discuss : Fireflies flash to send messages to each other. A firefly that wants to be a partner will answer with an identical flash. There are some imposter fireflies that will pretend to be friendly, and then eat the unsuspecting firefly! Have children hold hands out and send messages to each other by opening and closing fingers in patterns. Other children will answer by mimicking back. You can also give children small flashlight to blink with.

Variation for older children:

Divide children into two groups. One group will be the message-sending fireflies. Have two sets of cards with matching numbers (if you have a class of 16, have 8 pairs of cards, each with a number from 1-8). Give one card in each pair to each child in one group, and do the same with the other group. The group sending their messages will stand up and open and shut their hands to indicate the number of flashes on their cards. The children on the ground will try to figure out which child is flashing the number he or she holds. When everyone has found a partner, the game is over. After you have played this game a couple of times, you can make a mark on one of the cards indicating that that firefly is an imposter. When he finds his partner, he gets to eat him (or her) up! You can play the Firefly Song while children are looking for their partners.

Ants in your Pants:

This is a movement song!

On chorus:

If you have ants in your pants (clap, clap, clap,)

Or fleas in your knees (clap, clap, clap)

and you feel like a wiggle worm (children wiggle)

Verse 1. Children lie down and wiggle, pretending to be worms.

Verse 2. Children jump up and down

Verse 3. Children get up and dance

Verse 4. Children wiggle and dance again!

(Every time chorus is sung, instruct children to stop what they are doing, sit back down, and get ready to clap)

Where is Little Worm:

Make fist into an apple, with thumb tucked in. Pop thumb out for worm, then back in to crawl away) There is also a great apple finger puppet with a pop-out worm made by Folkmanis. You can order from All For Kids Books and Music (206) 526-2768.

Binny the Worm:

Make a worm puppet out of a brown sock, and a worm bin out of a cardboard box. Put hole in box, and have worm puppet stick his head out to sing this song. Discuss: What can and can’t you put in a worm bin. How do worms make compost?