DEVELOPMENTAL DOMAIN CONCEPT MAP
PHYSICAL: Fine Motor
• Insect sensory bin – find the bugs using
brush in dirt
• Digging for spaghetti worms in dirt using
tongs to pick up the worms in a sensory bin.
• Bug playdough exploration
• Icy insect eggs – freezing insects in ice.
• Cutting minibeasts patterns – e.g. spots,
spirals, wiggly lines, stripes.
• Making minibeasts from malleable materials
• Bug and bottle top – Using tweezers to pick
up plastic coloured bugs and match the
colours to the bottle caps.
• Spider web rescue – using tweezers to save
the insects from the spiders.
• Insect playdough imprints.
PERSONAL / SOCIAL / EMOTIONAL
• ‘The Grouchy Ladybug’ by Eric Carle
• Five little speckled frogs’ song for a
small group activity.
• Mini-beasts finger puppets
• Role play – Making a bug den
• Make a special moment out of releasing
bugs back into the garden.
• Circle times – caring for creatures and
their habitats
• Watching the life cycle of butterflies
• Be a minibeast detective in the vegetable
patch looking for signs of minibeasts
• Caring for monarch butterflies and
watching their life cycle in class.
CREATIVE / AESTHETIC PHYSICAL: Gross Motor
• Toilet roll bugs • Movement activity dice game e.g. wiggle
• Build a bug using a variety of shapes and cut out paper. like a worm, strutter like a butterfly
• Minibeasts suncatchers • Spider web balancing – chalk web drawn
• The very hungry caterpillar finger painting
on the floor for children to walk along the
• Marble spider web linking with children’s literature ‘The Very
Busy Spider’ by Eric Carle
line.
• Water colour paintings of minibeasts • Minibeasts obstacle course e.g. jump like a
• Static electricity butterfly experiment frog, crawl like a caterpillar.
• Butterfly symmetry • Dance to the Ugly Bug Ball song
• Make your own minibeasts garden – collect natural materials • Dance to The Flight of the Bumble Bee
and use a box or small tray for each child.
music
• Use props to support minibeasts
movements e.g. scarves for butterflies and
Minibeasts hoops as waterlilies for frogs.
Term: 3 Weeks: 2 - 6
COGNITIVE / LANGUAGE SPIRITUAL / MORAL
• Read aloud ‘Mad about Minibeasts’ by Giles Andrea and David • Insects and creepy crawlies yoga
Wojtowycz cards
• Sing ‘There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden’
• Listen to a nature sounds CD of
• Minibeasts story bags – e.g. plastic minibeasts, a leaf, a twig, a cup
bug sounds.
and a shoe – tell a story as the children pull out a prop
• Insect investigation table • Calming bottles
• Read aloud ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle • Insect sensory bottle
• Read aloud ‘A Very Busy Spider’ by Eric Carle • Minibeasts meditation music
• Bug puzzles • Quiet corners for children to lie
• Dressing up as mini beasts
down with bug pillows
• Small world play – tray with earth, gravel, small pond, pot plants
and plastic minibeasts.
• Reading space with a variety of
• Follow mini-beast’s’ patterns – spirals/stripes/wiggly lines books listed in the cognitive box.
• Minibeasts puppets to retell and create stories • Nature walks explore minibeasts
• Exploring bugs using a child appropriate microscope habitat.