A garden bug challenge

This week we seem to be focusing a lot on the nature we find right on our doorstep. Therefore, to go along with this, we did a garden bug challenge.

I challenged my children to see how many different bugs they could find in the garden. BB was to write them all down, while all three scouted around the garden looking together.

BB wrote numbers 1-15 on his notepad, so I said “wow, that would be impressive if you found 15″ and told them if they did manage to find 15 different bugs, I would give them a prize. Well, of course this really spurred them on, they were off like a shot!

They looked under pots, plants, stones. They inspected every inch of the garden. All three children were so excited, every time they found a bug, they would squeal with delight and jump around.

Lots of bugs were found from ants, worms and bees to a caterpillar and butterfly. They did also find creatures no one knew the name of, so BB wrote down “a bug we don’t know what it is”. I did find that quite amusing. They also found a few dead creatures. Hmm, I wasn’t too sure whether to let them count them, but I must admit, I didn’t stipulate the creatures had to be alive!

All in all, I had to give it to them, they listed their 15 bugs and had a fun time hunting them.

It showed the children just how many bugs and creatures are living in our garden that we don’t even know about.

The garden bug challenge was a really fun, free garden activity that taught the kids about nature, bugs, searching and writing (for BB). I would recommend giving this a go next time you’re in the garden, see how many bugs you can find.