Download Activities are (supposedly) focused around the Second Grade Core

Insect Mouths
(NatureScope Incredible Insects: page 28)
Second Grade Core: Standard 3 Objective 1
Investigate relationships between plants and animals and how living things change
during their lives; observe and describe relationships between plants and animals
Materials:
• Large pictures of a house fly, grasshopper, mosquito and butterfly.
• Pliers
• Sponge
• Toy syringe
• Clear drinking glass or beaker
• Food coloring
• Enough soda straws for the group
• Enough milk or juice for the group
Procedure:
1. Hang up the pictures of the female mosquito, house fly, grasshopper, and the
butterfly/moth.
2. Ask questions about the insects pictured
a. Do insects have teeth? Lots of children may say yes since they may have
been bitten by an insect. Explain that insects don’t have teeth like people
and other animals, just sharp jaws for tearing and chewing food.
b. Do all insects eat the same thing? What do insects eat? Different
insects eat many kinds of food such as blood, leaves, nectar, dead animals,
manure, fungi, wood, and other insects. To eat these different foods,
insects have developed different kinds of mouthparts.
c. What do mosquitoes/flies/grasshopper/moths eat? They eat different
things, and their mouth parts are very different.
3. Then show your class the pliers, sponge, toy syringe, and a straw. Let the class
guess which insect has a mouth that is comparable to the items.
a. Pliers: A grasshopper’s mouthparts work something like pliers to tear and
chew plants. Their jaws move sideways, not up and down like people.
b. Toy syringe: Female mosquitoes use their needle-like mouthparts to draw
up blood, just like a doctor uses a syringe. (Put a syringe into a glass or
beaker containing colored water and suck some up—use food coloring to
color the water).
c. Sponge: A house fly’s mouthparts work like a sponge to soak up liquids
(pour out a little water and sop it up with a sponge)
d. Straw: Butterflies and moths often feed on nectar from flowers. They
have long, tongue-like mouthparts that are used like a straw to sip up
nectar. (Now have the kids be butterflies and moths and sip up their juice
with a straw).