Minibeast Hunt

We’re searching for some minibeasts

There must be some, or one at least!

We’ve seen their pictures in a book

Now I wonder where we should look…

Let’s look on a leaf…

Remember to look underneath.

We might find a caterpillar having its lunch

There it goes munch, munch, munch!

(Action – hands opening and closing like mouths)

We’re searching for some minibeasts

There must be some, or one at least!

We’ve seen their pictures in a book

Now I wonder where we should look…

Let’s look under a log pile…

It look’s like its been there a while.

We might find some woodlice in the wood all holey

They’ve rolled into a ball, rolley, polley, rolley!

(Action – roll clenched fist in a circular motion)

We’re searching for some minibeasts

There must be some, or one at least!

We’ve seen their pictures in a book

Now I wonder where we should look…

Let’s look in the soil and earth…

It’s cool and dark under the turf.

We might find a worm having a wriggle

It’s dived into the soil going wiggle, wiggle wiggle!

(Action – wiggle one finger)

We’re searching for some minibeasts

There must be some, or one at least!

We’ve seen their pictures in a book

Now I wonder where we should look…

Let’s look in the long grass…

It tickles as we brush past.

We might find a spider at home in it’s web

Dingling and dangling on a long thread!

(Action – 2 hands joined by thumbs, wriggling all fingers to make a spider)

Learn the poem and encourage the children to think of their own verse for other minibeasts that they find. This can be done as a class, orally or put together in a writing activity.
Use the poem as a stimulus for a dance to create a story about a minibeast hunt with body movements and actions to depict different parts of the story. Instruments/sounds could also be added to signify when different movements could be made.
Build a ‘Minibeast Hotel’ and attract different minibeasts to your outdoor area. Encourage the children to keep a record of the different minibeasts that visit and in which environment they find them. Click here for some great ideas for building a ‘Minibeast Hotel’.
Encourage the children to think about their favourite minibeast. Which one do they like the best? Why? Which one are they scared of the most? Why? provide the children with questions e.g. Who is afraid of a spider? Which minibeast is the class favourite? Which is the most common minibeast in your outdoor area? Ask the children to find out the answers and record the information using e.g. tally charts, tick sheets. Use the information collected to produce a bar graph and use it to help children answer questions about the data.
Consider keeping caterpillars in the classroom and investigating the life cycle.
Make props to wear and use when going on a minibeast hunt e.g. hat, binoculars, bag, box/container to put minibeasts in.

A great book to support this work is Mad About Minibeasts by Giles Andreae.