Bug Books and Activities for Toddlers

Zel was so excited when he saw his book bucket full of bug books. I also put some bug finger puppets in there too! He just kept saying "bugs" over and over. He looked through every book on his own then asked me to read them to him. I love that he is such a little book worm.

Here are some great bug books for toddlers that are approved by Zel:

The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Bugs That Go! by David A. Carter

Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! by Bob Barner

Giant Pop-Out Bugs: A Pop-Out Surprise Book by Chronicle Books

The Itsy-Bitsy Spider by Rosemary Wells

Some great bug crafts and activities:

Giant Spider Web from Making Boys Men

Use fly swatters to make Spider Web Art from Fit Kids Clubhouse

Recycled Magazine Butterflies from Mama's Little Muse

Check out our Coffee Filter Butterflies too

Make a Buggy Breakfast with famiglia&seoul

Or try the classic Ants on a Log from Cheerios & Lattes.
I always used to eat these as a kid, but my Mom made them with celery instead of banana (I never ate the celery).


We also made our own edible dirt cups using this recipe from Quirky Mama:

Zel had so much fun making these and eating half of it in the process!

That concludes our bug week (well it turned into almost 2 weeks because Zel loved it so much). Have a great Monday!

Bug Bath

Zel LOVES water play. I can't say the word "bath" unless I am going to let him take one. This kid loves water. I decided to incorporate his love of water play and bath time with our bug theme this week. This is really several activities that are all related. So you could do them all or spread them out on different days like we did.

Before you take a bath, you need to get dirty, right? So we had a dirt sensory bin and filled it with pretend bugs, leaves, and dried flowers. Zel dug around with his shovel and every time he discovered something in the dirt he asked, "What's that?" Zel was soon distracted by his ride on car so we moved on to that activity and covered the sensory bin for another day.













That night we decided to grow bugs in the bath tub. Earlier in the week, I bought a pack of the little pellets that grow into sponge shapes when placed in water (it cost $.99 at Michael's). We put a few in the bath and waited for them to expand. Zel didn't really get it and they took a really long time. I think the key is to use really hot water, but Zel's bath was lukewarm. Once some of them did finally form into bugs Zel enjoyed ripping them to shreds. That's my tough guy!


The next day when we were feeling a little bored, we collected all of the bugs out of the dirt sensory bin. Then I filled a pot with warm water and gave Zel a soapy sponge. I told him that the bugs were dirty and he needed to give them a bath. I also added the rest of the pellets that grow into bugs.

He proceed to dump all of the bugs in the pot. 

Then, one by one, he took the all out and put them in his bucket. He then reversed it and put them each back into the water.


Then he took each one out and threw them across the floor.

I then showed him how to scrub each one with the sponge. He chose a few to get clean then placed them back and forth between the water and the bucket.














When he was taking them out of the water, he liked to put his face really close to the water to see the bugs better. Whenever he took out a bug, we talked about which bug it was and what color it was.

He must have been doing this for at least 30 minutes. This is a great go-to activity if you don't mind cleaning up a little water. I usually lay a towel down on the floor to help with any spills.