Activity: Insect Condominiums
- Overview
- Build and maintain a home specifically suited to an insect pet.
- Materials
- Insects, either something you caught or something you purchased at a pet store
- Paper
- Pens or pencils
- Various sizes and shapes of plastic containers (suggestions include 2-liter bottles, juice containers, ice cream buckets, etc.)
- Scissors
- Clear packing tape
- Netting (pantyhose, tulle, screen, cheesecloth)
- Permanent markers
- Other odds and ends such as beads, buttons and craft items for decorating
- Activity
- Go outside and catch some insects, or buy crickets, mealybugs or other insects at a pet store.
- Draw a blueprint of your family’s house.
- Think about what things all houses have in common and why these items and rooms are included in most homes. Also discuss the differences and benefits or drawbacks these would have in other homes.
- Then create homes for your insects using recyclable materials. Use one container or attach several together. You will need to figure out a way to open and close the container without losing the insect. You will also have to figure out how to water and feed each insect. You can decorate the houses with markers or by gluing craft items onto them if you wish.
- Don't forget the "furniture:" look for and collect the necessary materials for the insect to live in its condo — grass, leaves, soil, water, other live animals, bedding materials, etc.
- Eventually, you should let your insect(s) go back outside.
- Wrap-up
- How did your insect condo relate to the insect’s natural habitat?
Teacher version:
