Teach preschoolers about mosquitoes with craft projects.
Mosquitoes are common annoying insects that like to stay around damp areas. When teaching preschoolers about the pesky insects, allow them to participate in hands-on mosquito crafts. Hands-on crafts build fine motor skills in young children, as well as giving them a better idea of what the insects look like. With short attention spans, it is best to plan easy and simple crafts for the preschoolers so they do not get bored.
Coloring Crafts
Print coloring pages of mosquitoes and allow the preschoolers to color the pictures. They can use crayons, markers and paint. Test the creativity and imagination of the preschoolers by having them try to draw a mosquito freehand. Give them pictures to use as a guide to draw the mosquitoes. Turn this craft into an activity and award small prizes to entice the children to try their best. Award a small prize, like stickers or a box of crayons, to the best and most creative drawings.
Pom-pom Crafts
Preschoolers can use a variety of pom-pom crafts to make mosquitoes. Have them glue googly eyes and a miniature pom-pom on a medium-size pom-pom to create the mosquito's head. Glue chenille stems to the pom-pom to create the wings and mouth. Make a fuzzy mosquito by cutting yarn into several little pieces and gluing the pieces all over the pom-poms. Have the preschoolers use light brown, brown or black yarn for this craft.
Poster Board Crafts
Cut out mosquito-shaped bodies and wings out of white poster board. Give each preschooler two wings and a body. Tell the preschoolers to color the mosquitoes black and leave the wings white. Have them glue googly eyes onto the head of the mosquito. Use chenille stems to create the legs, mouth and antennas. For added decoration, help the children create movable wings. Instead of gluing the wings onto the mosquito body, poke holes through the wings and body. Attach the wings to the body using paper clasps so the wings will move.
Other Crafts
Other craft ideas include using play dough and clay. Give the children black, white and brown dough to use to sculpt a mosquito. Preschoolers can use small craft wood sticks to create designs on the mosquitoes. Another idea is to make keepsake mosquitoes the children can show off to all their friends. Give the children self-hardening clay to sculpt the mosquito. Allow the clay to dry and harden overnight. The next day, preschoolers can paint mosquitoes with acrylic paints.
Tags: wings body, chenille stems, Give children, glue googly, glue googly eyes