Beginning with bugs...in a happy science way :)

I have a whole class full of boys (sadly not a single girl), so how did I decide to start the year??? With BUGS of course! We teach a theme each month and I picked bugs since boys love all things gross. We have a whole fun series of lessons coming our way this month!

My Bug Unit:

• Insect PowerPoint- explaining characteristics of insects
• Work pages to identify parts of an insect, as well as draw and label them independently (scaffolded lessons that build on each day)
• "Bug Hunt" activity
• Insect report mini-book

All of these things have been started, but not quite ready to be published on TPT. I'll put up the full unit for you guys when I'm finished with it. Here is a sneak peek at the first page:

My best decoding starting at the top going clockwise:
-Nature
-6 legs
-worms
-some insects move in big packs
-fif?? No idea, it made sense but I forget now
-wings
-build
-pollen (they eat it he said)

I started my unit by brainstorming and that they could put anything they think of when they hear the word "insects." I wanted to know what prior knowledge we were starting with. This was also an eye opener to me that my kids have NO CLUE how to use a web! Good thing we're using Step Up to Writing this year! I differentiated this because I teach a 1st/2nd combo this year with a wide range of abilities. I had my early readers draw pictures and explain to me what they thought of, and my more advanced/older students wrote words/phrases. This is when I discovered they were trying to write whole sentences and didn't know they could shorten it just to get their thoughts out.

What is your first science theme of the year?