Where do worm, caterpillar, beetle and butterfly go for winter?

I love starting out my week with curious 4 year olds! We talked about where the insects and worms go for winter today in an area pre-school. I used layers of felt to show snow, sand and layers of dirt to show where some of these creatures may hibernate.A felt log with lots of loose nooks and crannies helped show how some insects and spiders hide behind the bark and was lots of fun for the kids to find the hiding insects and eggs like the chickadees and woodpeckers do.We sang some silly songs together, too, about where beetles spend the winter and where the butterflies go. We even had different verses for the different butterflies, like the mourning cloak that hibernates behind the bark and the monarch, which migrates.

The kids loved it and I had a blast. The insects, worms, etc. were plastic for this lesson since the real ones are otherwise engaged….