{REVIEW} The Good and the Beautiful Science – Arthropods

“We have all of us, men and animals, some special gift. One child takes to music; another is always modeling things out of clay; another is quick at figures. It is the same way with insects. One kind of bee can cut leaves; another builds clay houses; spiders know how to make webs.”

– Jean-Henri Fabre –

We have wrapped up our final science unit of the year and it was a good one! This was our second time doing the Arthropods unit and it was just as wonderful as I remembered it! This was the very first science unit and very first experience we had with The Good and the Beautiful three years ago and I am so grateful for it.

Topics

Introduction to Arthropods
Introduction to Insects
Insect Stations: Mosquitoes, Fireflies, Termites, and Silkworms
Bees and Wasps {2 Lessons}
Entomologist: Jean-Henri Fabre
Butterflies {2 Lessons}
Ants
Insect Defenses
Arachnids
Crustaceans

There is also a lesson where your child is allowed to select an insect to give an oral report on…more on that later!

Vocabulary & Science Wall

Vocabulary for this unit include:

Arthropod
Invertebrate
Exoskeleton
Cold Blooded
Entomology
Hive
Cell
Crustaceans
Molting

Supplies

If you are not super gung-ho for supplies and experiments you are going to LOVE this unit! This is probably the lightest unit when it comes to supplies and – I’m not going to lie – I kind of love that about it!

Science Journal

All science units with The Good and the Beautiful require a science notebook. How you do that is up to you though! It can be as simple as a binder or folder. I make up a science journal for my kiddos at the beginning of the year for all of our units – a much more detailed post about that coming in the next couple weeks!

Read Alouds

This unit is also pretty light compared to others on the suggested read alouds. But you know how much we love them! The ones we used in this unit were:

Chirping Crickets by Melvin Berger
The Empress and the Silkworm by Lily Toy Hong
Small Wonders: Jean-Henri Fabre and His World of Insects by Matthew Clark Smith
Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian by Margarita Engle
Ant Cities by Arthur Dorros
National Geographic Readers: Spiders by Laura Marsh

Length of Unit

This lesson has thirteen lessons. We usually shoot for two science lessons a week which put this at about seven weeks. I felt like each lesson was very doable within 30 to 60 minutes.

Our Favorite Activities

There are a lot of great activities in this unit but I completely failed in documenting them in pictures. UGG. I will do my best to tell you all about it though 😉

The course prompts your kiddos to give an oral presentation on an insect. Last time, we did this unit Jacob did a report on praying mantis. This time around, he went with termites!

I keep it really simple and I printed off some information for Jacob and then he read it on his own and I told him he needed to pick at least three things that he thought were most interesting. And then, of course, he had to draw a picture. He then shared it with the family!

Jacob really loved all of the different “bug” videos we got to watch. The course gives you several prompts to watch different National Geographic videos and they are short and fascinating.

There is a great activity to demonstrate pollination with Cheetos.

We got to make honey candy – Jacob loves honey!

One thing that I was so bummed about was our ant farm. Last time we did this unit, we just watched one on youtube which was good but I really wanted to get one for us this time around. However, I forgot about ordering it until it was too close and it was going to take too long to get here.

SO…learn from my mistake! If you want to get an ant farm, give yourself roughly three weeks for it to come!

Another activity that we didn’t do {but this time on purpose} is a crayfish dissection. I looked at getting one but opted not to because I think Jacob is still just a little too young. Next time though – WE ARE DOING IT! And by we, I mean Mark and the kids because…eww.

Field Trips

We didn’t go on any official field trips this go around BUT I feel like there are so many possibilities for expanded learning and fun. You could go to the zoo and spend extra time in their bug room or see if you local area has a butterfly pavilion.

Final Thoughts

If you just wanted to dip your toes into The Good and the Beautiful science – this would be the unit I would recommend. I feel like it is TGTB light. It just feels more simple {NOT that it is lacking in goodness though} and would be a great starter unit.

I wouldn’t say I am a “bug person” but this unit really does make me appreciate all those little – and NOT so little – creatures of our world. Jacob has loved this unit both times and surprised me with:

“It is so interesting how we’ve done this unit before but I am learning so much more.”

I was really impressed when he said that a couple weeks ago with no prodding or anything from me. I loved that he acknowledged that his learning was growing – even if its about a topic we’ve learned before.

And THAT to me folks, is why I don’t worry one bit about repeating units. Very rarely, at least for me, do I learn things completely the first go around. Repeat exposure is essential and that is what repeating these units does. There were some things that Jacob remembered from his kindergarten year {although he didn’t complain at all about covering them again} but I could tell – AND SO COULD HE – that he was retaining and making new connections as well.

Gold.

My favorite part of the unit is probably learning about Jean-Henri Fabre. I love the read aloud about him and just find his story fascinating.

This unit checks all of the boxes for me – even ones I didn’t know existed before I started – and I would completely recommend it.

Click on any of the links below to read about the other science units we have done: