Activity sheets:
Cricket Sing Song
Observation Sheet
Scientific Drawing Sheet
Male & Female Cricket Count
Male & Female Total Cricket Count for Class Chart
Teacher Preparation:
- Identify and prepare a place in the classroom for the insects to live. Avoid areas with direct sun, air vents or cold drafts. Observing the crickets in containers stripped of all egg cartons and other material is easier for the students. Housing the crickets in a large container (gallon jar or aquarium) and separating them into other containers (see directions for How to make an arthropod container) for observation may work best for your class. Refer to the information and rearing sheets for other considerations. Gather materials for cricket containers and set-up several days before lesson begins. Provide observation sheet with a clipboard.
- Secure access to a refrigerator or ice chest for chilling the crickets (Activity 3).
- Three charts are planned for this lesson (Activities 1, 2 and 3). One discussion is recorded on butcher paper (Introduction). Prepare bulletin board space or other wall space for displaying the charts throughout the lesson.
- Prepare copies of Observation Sheet (Activity 1), Scientific Drawing Sheet (Activity 2), Cricket Counting Sheet (Activity 3) and the Chart for Cricket Count (Activity 3).
- Gather remaining materials and books (see Bibliography).
Materials:
- Crickets (7 or more per team)
- Cricket containers (aquarium or gallon jar, egg carton, paper towel, dog food, small lids)
- Containers (for team observations - plastic jars, soda bottle containers, etc.)
- Individual student journals
- Sand paper
- Combs
- Tape
- Marimbas (rhythm instrument with clicking, scraping sound)
- Pencils
- Clipboard
- Butcher paper
- Rebecca Caudill, A Pocketful of Crickets; Carla Stevens, Catch a Cricket; Eric Carle, A Very Quiet Cricket; James Howe, I Wish I were a Butterfly.
- Any supporting fiction and non-fiction literature that may not be suggested in the bibliography.
Cricket Information Sheets
Cricket Rearing Sheets
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