Exploring minibeasts with children provides endless opportunities to cover all areas of the curriculum in an exciting way. Colours and patterns will be observed as children watch butterflies fluttering past; numeracy can be introduced as the children hunt for the longest worm or count the spots on a ladybird; social awareness can be brought into focus as they try to work out the family units of ants and exploring the lifecycles of these creatures further develops their knowledge and understanding of the world.
Practitioners can support children's learning by providing as many real-life explorations of minibeasts as possible, and complementing these with books and photographs and by creating natural habitats containing real minibeasts, or realistic versions.
DEEPER UNDERSTANDING
The term minibeast can be used for any creature that either has no backbone or no internal skeleton. These creatures are also called invertebrates. Common minibeasts that can be found in the outdoor environment include bees, spiders, ants, worms, butterflies and woodlice.
Children learn best through real experiences that have a purpose and relevance to their lives and interests. Early years consultant Gail Ryder Richardson, who specialises in outdoor provision (www.outdoormatters.co.uk) says that hunting for minibeasts under a fallen log will 'always enable a deeper understanding of these creatures, their lives and habitats than a play session with commercially produced plastic minibeasts however lifelike they may look'.
She advises practitioners to 'avoid' an approach that focuses on minibeasts as a two-week topic once a year. She explains, 'Aim to create and use opportunities to build children's understanding all year round. Weekly expeditions to see what's happening under the logs supports learning and deeper understanding over time through direct experience. Provide easily accessible resources to support children's observations, for example, magnifiers and bug boxes. And model sensitive behaviour so that children learn to be careful when handling these tiny creatures. In addition to direct observation, provide other sources of information such as posters, factual books and filmed clips.'
RESOURCE IDEAS
Here are some ideas for what to include in your minibeast collection:
Providing a robust set of resources that can be used outdoors and can withstand the weather is important for nursery settings. The Exploration Resource Box, £65, from www.playgardens.co.uk contains three of each of the following: magnifiers, bug viewers, mini telescopes, dynamo torches, easy-read compasses and miragescopes. It also includes a pair of binoculars, a bug chart, a set of jumbo wax crayons and chalks. Another outdoor kit that contains everything from pond nets to clipboards 
is the Minibeasts Grab and Go Kit, £95, from www.tts-group.co.uk which comes in a handy plastic trunk.
- Investigate minibeasts that have fallen out of a tree by using the Semi Circle Bug Shake Mat, £9.95, from Cosy Direct, tel: 01332 370152. The white background will make bugs easier to spot. Collect live insects with Cosy Direct's set of five Bug Hunters, £9.75, which have a safe, easy-to-use sucking tube. Examine them on the wooden outdoor Nature Station, £64.99, which has enough space to add clipboards and reference books or charts, or put them in the Minibeast Station, £140, both from Cosy Direct. Other useful products in Cosy Direct's minibeast range include the Set of 10 Magnifying Glasses,
£9.99; the A4 Fresnel Lens, £2.50, which has a large magnifying viewing area; the Giant Folding Magnifier, £2.70; the set of five pocket-sized Magnifying Glasses, £3.95; the Magnifying Jar, £2.70 or the Jumbo Magnifier, £2.99.
- Provide opportunities for children to learn about living things by using resources available at www.reflectionsonlearning.co.uk. Place the Spider Web Frame, £5.99, which comes with a brochure about spiders and their webs, in a natural area and watch what happens. The Bug Box, £19.99, the Butterfly Haven, £14.99, and the Ladybird Tower, £9.99, provide a sanctuary for a variety of minibeasts, enabling close investigation and exploration of bug habits and habitats.
- Provide age-appropriate tools for children to look closely into holes, gaps and cavities. Try the Sheet Magnifier, £2.99, the Wooden Surround Hand Lens, £4.99, and the Double Lens Stand Magnifier, £19.99, for use outdoors and indoors.
- For temporary storage of minibeasts, try the Bug Bottle with a handle, £5.99, or the Bug Hut, £11.99, both from www.earlyyears.co.uk. Or, try the Jumbo Bug Jars, £30 for a set of six, which come with a ladybird lid that opens to reveal a magnifying lens, from www.yellow-door.net. Follow minibeasts in their natural habitat with the set of four rubberwood Wooden Magnifiers, £25, from www.mindstretchers.co.uk. Or encourage children to verbally record their findings with the set of six Talking Recordable Magnifiers, £59.99, from www.tts-group.co.uk. Back indoors, examine the bugs in the Magnifying Jar on Stand, £14.10, from www.wesco-eshop.co.uk or set the scene with the Minibeasts Photographic Carpet, £299.95, from www.tts-group.co.uk, where children can search for bees, snails, toads and beetles, butterflies.
- Use a Tuff Spot builder's tray to create a minibeast scene indoors. Try the Active World Tray, £15.99, with the Active World Minibeast Mat, £18.99, and build up a landscape using Mopani Wood, £7.99 and Pea Gravel, £4.50, all available from www.tts-group.co.uk. Or, try the new Marvellous Minibeasts range from www.yellow-door.net, which includes 24 plastic insects including flies and dragonflies, a set of 12 plastic butterflies and a pack of 100 artificial coloured leaves, all for £25.
LIFECYCLES
Watching tadpoles emerge into frogs or finding some snail eggs under a log and watching them until they hatch is an exciting process for a child. But not all children are close enough to nature to experience the lifecycles of minibeasts with their own eyes.
However, thanks to the creation of the Butterfly Garden by Insect Lore, practitioners can now give children the opportunity to raise baby caterpillars to adult caterpillars, watch them change into chrysalis and release them into the wild as butterflies.
The Butterfly School Kit with Live Caterpillars, £49.99, from www.insectlore-europe.com, contains a reusable net which can be hung or placed on a table-top, 33 Painted Lady caterpillars with food, a feeding pipette, instruction guide and a factsheet. The whole life-cycle takes around three to five weeks. The Painted Lady Lifecycle Figures, £3.33, from www.insectlore-europe.com, contain replicas of an egg, larva, chrysalid and adult butterfly and are a good accessory to the live kits.
Here are some more useful resources that will help you to raise and keep your own minibeasts:
- Children will love learning about the life of the Bumblebee with the Bumblebee Nester, £25, from www.playgardens.co.uk, which provides an ideal, safe nesting place for wild bumble bees. The Nester is constructed from thick timber and has an internal viewing panel where the children can watch the bees nesting and gain a better understanding of the depletion of bee numbers in the UK.
- Watch worms breaking down food in the Composter and Wormery, £28.95, from Cosy Direct, which has three see-through chambers with magnification spots. Or try Worm View, £29.99, from www.insectlore-europe.com, to see how worms live and work underground.
- Raise ladybirds with the Adalia Box - Live Ladybird Eggs & Frozen Food, £29.99, from www.insectlore-europe.com. The kit contains 50 ladybird larvae and details of how to carry out the breeding. Stick Insect Eggs, six for £6.04, and Live Ants, £5.25 for 10, are also available from www.insectlore-europe.com
BOOK CORNER
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Bad Tempered Ladybird and The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
- Snail Trail by Ruth Brown; Are You a Spider/Ladybird/Bee/Snail/Ant/Butterfly? by Judy Allen and Tudor Humphries (Up the Garden Path series, Kingfisher Books)
- Slugs and Snails/Earthworms/Caterpillars by Claire Llewellyn and Barrie Watts (Minibeast series, Franklin Watts)
CASE STUDY
After a trip to Camley Street Nature Park in central London, children from Moreland Primary School and Children's Centre in Islington, London became so interested in minibeasts that they brought them into the classroom.
Catherine Lawrence, early years co-ordinator, says, 'We have a digging area outside and the children have designed their own wormery. They love finding centipedes, earthworms and stag beetles and can't wait to show off their findings. We decided to extend their interest to indoors, where we created an indoor garden in a large walk-in cupboard. We put artificial grass on the floor, put up photographs of minibeasts, made a pond and decorated it with flowers. Spiders webs hung from the ceiling. We went on excursions in there with clipboards and the children used the space to talk about the different minibeasts.
'We also collected snails from the garden and put them into an old fish tank and brought them indoors where the children could watch them. And we raised butterflies with Insect Lore's kit and found videos on You Tube that showed the speeded up lifecycle of a butterfly.'
