Reddit mentions of Bug Shaped Plastic Easter Eggs (Set of 12 Eggs)

I don't really have formal lesson plans - more of a very loose outline. It's not a formal class - more like a two-week show-and-tell, featuring whatever bugs I have on-hand. I have a number of species that I keep as pets year-round (mostly arachnids and myriapods) supplemented with whatever insects I am able to catch or purchase in the weeks leading up to the class - and whatever the kids bring in.

I introduce the kids to the major classes/subphyla (arachnids, crustaceans, insects, myriapods, trilobites) and orders within each. For the younger kids, we look at what characteristics identify something as an arthropod and that differentiate between the classes/subphyla. We also look at the differences and similarities between the various insect orders.

We go over the anatomy of the various creatures - more in depth with the older kids, including building those 4D Vision models of beetles, a tarantula, and a scorpion so they can get a better idea of what the internal organs are and how they differ from human organs. I also show the kids the insect x-rays (which also include arachnids and myriapods) and have them compare those to x-rays of vertebrates.

We talk about molting and for a visual demonstration of how the bug can be bigger after it molts, even though it's coming out of a smaller shell, I take two balloons (a small water balloon and a larger party balloon). I stuff the larger balloon inside the water balloon and blow up the larger balloon as much as possible, until the water balloon is tight. (I clamp the neck of the balloon rather than tying it.) I show that to the kids and explain that the exoskeleton can't stretch and is getting too tight for the growing bug. Then, I carefully cut the water balloon (without puncturing the inner balloon) to represent shedding the old skin and it bursts off the other balloon. Finally, I explain that when the bug is newly-molted, the new exoskeleton is still soft and stretchy, so the bug inflates itself with air and body fluids to expand the new exoskeleton before it hardens, and I inflate the balloon further to show them what I mean.

We go over life cycles and metamorphosis and I show them the various life-cycle models for different types of insects.

We touch briefly on social insects and the difference between social and solitary wasps and bees.

For the younger kids, we do a "bug hunt" where I hide a bunch of bug-shaped Easter eggs in the school garden. I let the older kids do this too - but we also go out and hunt for real bugs. I'll give them a scavenger hunt list of things to find, including things like insect eggs, an orb web, a crustacean, a beetle, a member of the heteroptera, an insect larva, an insect nymph, etc.

I bring in an entire room full of live pet bugs as well as an assortment of preserved bugs for the kids to look at. I group them by class and order, so the kids can see at a glance which ones are related to each other.

We spend a couple of days talking about spiders, including the various uses of webbing, different types of webs the spiders make, going out around campus and seeing how many kinds of web we can find (we can usually at least find a cobweb, an orb web, and a funnel web). We talk about venom, the difference between venom and poison, and different methods that venom can be administered (here we broaden out to include other arachnids, myriapods, insects - and even snakes.) The older kids built hydraulic arms so they could understand how hydraulics work when we talked about how spiders use hydraulic pressure to extend their legs, rather than relying solely on muscles like people do. (I use rubber bands and craft sticks to demonstrate to the kids how muscles work in pairs to extend/retract a limb in other animals.)

We also go over various mouth parts and how those are adapted to the foods the insects eat. I use props like a syringe and an orange to demonstrate how heteroptera and mosquitoes have piercing/sucking mouthparts, zig-zag craft scissors and leaves to demonstrate chewing mouthparts, a straw with a paintbrush inside it and a shallow bowl of water to demonstrate the lapping mouthparts of a bee, a long tube connected to a syringe (without the needle - just the plastic part) to demonstrate the long, coiled proboscis of some lepidoptera - and a homemade paper trumpet flower to show how the long proboscis can reach deep inside, where shorter mouthparts might not.

We talk about the different types of wings and make paper insect wings for different orders, including butterflies, moths, beetles (with paper elytra and folded hind wings to show how the wings fold up to fit underneath the elytra), bees/wasps (with tape to represent the hamuli that connect the wings together in flight). We talk about the relationship between wing surface area, body size and weight, how fast the insect has to flap to become airborne, and how fast and skillful the insect is in the air. We also talk about how flies use their halteres to keep themselves oriented in flight.

I tell them about various interactions, too - like the male soldier beetles that harvest cantharidins from blister beetles, to present them as courting gifts to the females, so they can use them to protect their eggs, or plants that - when chewed on by caterpillars - release scents that attract parasitic wasps to come lay eggs on the caterpillars, or ants that tend aphids and scale insects, protecting them from predators in exchange for honeydew, and phoretic mites that hitch a ride on other bugs - and how the phoretic mites can be beneficial to the transporting bugs, like the mites that hitch rides on carrion beetles and then eat the fly eggs and larvae that might otherwise compete with the beetles' larvae for food.

We will talk a little bit about reproductive strategies, including ways the bugs care for or protect their eggs or their young (if they do) and alternatives like laying lots of eggs at once or laying eggs singly and the advantages/disadvantages of each. We'll usually go out and look for examples of these - like the brown widow spiders actively guarding their eggs, the lacewing eggs at the end of those long hairs to protect them from predators, mantis eggs in a protective case, moth eggs just laid en masse, etc.

We usually finish up with a sampling of the defensive strategies that various bugs use, such as running away, hiding, biting or stinging, camouflage, fecal shields, aposematic coloration, and various types of mimicry.

I hope that helps! :-)