Insects Lapbook (Interactive Notebook) for Elementary Entomology

Explore the world of insects with this insect lapbook. Your students will learn about insect life cycle and two types of metamorphosis, the benefits of insects, and much more.

The comprehensive Insects Lapbook has 15 mini interactive books to complete, plus six hands-on activity to extend learning and create meaningful educational experiences while learning vocabulary, characteristics, benefits, and classification of insects–everything your elementary students need to know about insects!

A library list of required and optional resources, as well as vetted online resources is included in this Insect Lapbook for Elementary students.

Not sure what a lapbook is? Find out here. 

Your elementary students will enjoy this interactive learning folder about the subphylum Hexapoda, class Insecta. The Latin word Insecta means “cut up” because their bodies are “cut” into 3 segments. Insects also always have 6 legs attached at the thorax part of their body.

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Resources for the Insects Lapbook

Required Library List:

Insects by Eyewitness DK books This very popular book has been republished about every 2 years for the past 20 years; your library should have one of the editions. There’s also a DVD called Eyewitness Insects from the early 2000s that my library has and my kids enjoyed it as a supplement.

Backyard (One Small Square) by Donald Silver

Insect World (A Child’s First Library of Learning) by C.E. Berry OR a similar non-fiction book about insects. We used this because my mom saved the whole series of A Child’s First Library of Learning from when I was a kid and they still have great info.

It’s a Good Thing There Are Insects (Rookie Read-About series) by Allan Fowler Also on Open Library in Spanish

Optional Library List:

Select one or more of these additional bug books if your kids want to read more about insects:

Everything You Need to Know About Bugs by Smithsonian DK Also on Open Library

OR Super Bug Encyclopedia: The Biggest, Fastest, Deadliest Creepy-Crawlers on the Planet by Smithsonian DK

OR Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Guide to Insects and Spiders Also on Open Library

OR Fun with Nature (Take Along Guide) by Boring, Burns, and Dendy *Highly recommended for your home library. It will be much used!

Online Resources:

Beautiful Bugs Magic School Bus video

Respect the Insect SciShow Kids video

Insect Facts on Kiddle

Hexapods on Animals facts website

Insect Identification on NC State Entomology

The Insects who Vibrate to Communicate (use for mini books #10 and #14)

If this is your first time completing a lapbook, read this first to learn how to fold your folders to create the lapbook base.

Insect Lapbook Mini Book Instructions

See inside the Lapbook download for more detailed instructions. Here are the basic topics covered.

1. Vocabulary: Define the ten insect terms:

• Species
• Arthropods
• Exoskeleton
• Thorax
• Abdomen
• Antennae
• Metamorphosis
• Insect
• Hexapod
• Animal Classification

2. Label the insect: Use the word bank to label the external anatomy of the insect.

Optional Activity: Play the Cootie Bug-Building Game and build your bug.

3. Characteristics of an insect (animals in the subphylum hexapoda): List at least 5 of the major characteristics these creatures have in common. (Parents: use this Animal Facts site with the characteristics of hexapods to see if their answers are correct.

Hands-on Activity: Build a Bug Make an insect using three sections of a paper egg carton and some pipe cleaners for legs and antennae, like these from Learn, Play, Explore, or these from Gingersnap Crafts.

4. Is a spider an insect?/ Is a centipede or millipede an Insect? Answer the questions and explain why.

5. Insect defenses: How do insects generally defend themselves against attack by predators? You can list unique behaviors by specific insects, or answer generally about most bugs.

6. Insect diets: What do bugs eat? Do they eat other bugs? List out something that bugs eat on each of the flaps.

Hands-on Activity: Ant Observation If you have an ant hill somewhere in your yard that you can sit and watch for a while, that is the simplest solution for observing ants. If not, you can create an ant farm that you can watch over the course of several weeks like this one, or complete the Ant Farm Science experiment detailed in the Insects Lapbook product in the HHO Shop.

7. Insects Five Senses: How do they do it? Tell how insects see, smell, breath, eat, and feel what is around them.

Hands-on Activity: Eat like a Fly You will need a very clean, well rinsed out sponge (or a folded up washcloth) and a straw. Soak the sponge or washcloth with water. Press the end of the straw against the sponge or washcloth and try to suck up some of the water through the straw. This is how a fly’s or butterfly’s mouth works.

8. How many insects are there? There are more insects than people in the world. Research the numbers and answer the questions in the mini book.

Hands-on Activity: Let’s Go on a Bug Hunt Complete a bug count with the printable Insect Scavenger Hunt (included in the Insect Lapbook). Sit outside for a while and count the number of bugs you see in your backyard or a local park.

9. Benefits of insects: How do bugs help humans? Are they just a nuisance? Why do we even have bugs, anyway?

10. Predators of insects: Who are bugs afraid of? Who or what eats or kills bugs?

In addition to the common predators we think of, like birds, bats, amphibians and reptiles, or even skunks and possums, did you know that the most common insect predator is other insects? They are called apex, because they are at the top of their food chain. These include: dragonflies, assassin beetles, praying mantis, robber flies, and some predatory beetles. These apex insects help control the insect population and create a healthy environment.

11. Types of insect life cycle: Complete and Incomplete Metamorphosis: Complete the life cycles for a grasshopper and a bee to show two types of metamorphosis.

Hands-On Activity: Insect Life Cycles Have your student create a diorama or model of either incomplete or complete metamorphosis using items from the recycling bin (like the inside bubble wrap of an Amazon envelope and bits of scrap paper), pipe cleaners, a bit of felt, and their imaginations. We mounted ours on a piece of a cereal box. Or alternately, you could purchase caterpillars and raise them. We’ve have very good success with Painted Lady caterpillars from Insect Lore (and not good luck at all with Monarch caterpillars).

12. Insect Reproduction: Discuss the courtship insects have and tell if they have sexu@l or asexu@l reproduction, or both. (If you feel your kids are ready for this lesson, just skip this mini-book)

13. Insect classification: List out the animal classification categories for the class Insecta.

14. Insect communication: Explain some of the ways insects communicate with one another, and how they can even “talk” to other insect species.

Watch one (or more) of these videos about insect communication:

• Honeybees Waggle Dance and communication (best for older kiddos)
• Are Ants Better Communicators Than You?
• How Insects Communicate with Smells

15. Who studies insects? Entomologists is the broad name for scientists who study insects, however, there are additional subcategories for scientists who specialize in only one type of insect (for example, ants). Have your student write about entomologists and what they do. Would they like to learn more about bugs and study entomology too?

Additional Insects Activities

Just for fun: Get this set of Life Cycle Insect Figurines with Monarch Butterfly, Honey Bee, Ladybug, Praying Mantis, Dragonfly, Grasshopper

Start an insect collection using these instructions for collecting bugs

Watch this full episode of Magic School Bus: All About Insects

Complete our Butterflies Lapbook to learn more about those types of insects

Download your copy of the OLD, ORIGINAL Insects Lapbook from the Free Resource Library. Look under Lapbooks or GRAB THE NEW, COMPLETELY UPDATED VERSION FROM THE HHO SHOP.

More Insects Notebooking Pages and Worksheets

Insect Journal and Bug Facts Worksheets

Insect Life Cycle Notebooking Pages

All Insects and Spiders Notebooking Pages