Hi everyone.

Thank you for coming to learn with me today.

I'm Mrs. Horan and I'm really looking forward to learning all about insects with you in today's lesson.

Today's lesson is part of the unit on reproduction and lifecycles of animals.

The lesson is called insects and we'll be learning all about the characteristics of insects.

The outcome for our lesson today is to identify and name insect and describe their common features.

This lesson builds on what you already know about animal features and classification, and as part of what our big learning questions, what are living things and what are they made of, and why are there similarities and differences between living things? These are the key words that we're going to be focusing on today.

Insect, antennae, segmented, invertebrate, and exoskeleton.

Some of those are probably unfamiliar to you, but don't worry, we're going to have a really good look at them during the lesson.

And here are some explanations of the keywords.

As I said, our new words will be explained as we come to them during the lesson, so you don't need to look closely at them now.

They're just here in case you need a reminder of anything later on and want to look back for a quick check.

Our lesson today is divided into two parts.

Let's get started with the first part.

What is an insect? Insects are a type of animal with certain characteristics.

You can see some insects there on the screen.

Have you ever seen these insects yourself? We have a beetle, a honeybee, a butterfly, and an ant, and they're all types of insects, but there are many, many more.

In fact, scientists think there are around 900,000 different types of insects on earth and more being discovered all the time.

Around 24,000 of these types of insects can be found in the United Kingdom, so you've probably seen quite a few different types of insects yourself.

Do you know any of the characteristics of insects? Think about the different insects you have seen.

What do they have in common? An insect is a small animal that has six jointed legs and a segmented body with three parts.

The word segmented is one of our keywords today, and it means in segments or sections.

So an insects body has three sections.

We'll take a closer look at these segments in a moment.

Insects also have antennae on their heads that help them sense the world around them.

These antennae help their insect to touch, smell, and for some insects, hear their surrounding.

You can see we have another key word there, antennae.

Antennae are long, thin things that insects have on their head.

You can see them there on the head of the cockroach in the picture.

The cockroaches antennae are quite long.

Not all insects have antennae that are this long.

It varies from insect to insect.

Antennae is quite an unusual word because it's a plural.

Now we know that plurals of words often just add an S on the end, like the plural of insect is insects, or the plural of lesson is lessons.

But in the word antennae, we have to add an E.

The singular form of this word is antennae.

So we would say one antenna, antennae is the plural.

So we say insects have a pair of antennae.

Many, but not all insects have one or two pairs of wings.

Sometimes it can be hard to tell if an insect has wings or not because they might be tucked away inside a shell like on ladybirds or shield beetles.

With some insects like butterflies and bees, it's really obvious that they have wings.

And of course some insects don't have any wings like ants and aphids.

Let's take a closer look at the parts on an insects body.

At the top of the head we have a pair of antennae.

Then there is the head.

The head holds most of the insect sensory organs, so as well as the antennae being there, this is also where the insect eyes and mouth will be.

Under the head, the next part of the insect body is called the thorax.

This is the middle part and the legs are attached to this part.

The next part of an insects segmented body is the abdomen.

This is the largest of the three parts on an insects body and usually contains the organs in their digestive and reproductive systems. And finally, we of course have the insects six jointed legs.

All insects have six legs.

If a creature has a different number of legs than it's not an insect.

Let's see how we're doing with those insect body parts.

For this check for understanding, you need to add in the labels that are missing from the diagram.

We have three words for you to fill in.

Pause the video here and have a go.

How did you do? Did you find some were easier to remember than others? If you found one of them really tricky to remember or to spell correctly, that is the one for you to really focus on for the rest of the lesson.

So at the top we have a pair of antennae.

Did you remember to add the E on the end to show that it was plural? Then in the middle of the insect, we have the thorax, and at the bottom, we have the abdomen.

Let's find out more about the characteristics of insects.

Insects are invertebrates.

This means they do not have a backbone or spine.

Insects do not have a skeleton inside their body like we do.

Now, you might remember that if we didn't have skeletons, then we'd be sort of blob shaped and we wouldn't be able to move, and our organs wouldn't have any protection.

So how do you think insects bodies are supported and protected without a skeleton? Insects have an external shell called an exoskeleton that supports and protects their bodies.

Exoskeleton means outside skeleton.

The prefixed exo, or ex, means outer or outside, and you might have heard it before in words like exterior, external, or exit.

On some insects like lady birds and beetles, it is easy to see this external skeleton.

You can see in the pictures that the outside of these insects clearly looks like it's hard and rigid, not soft and squishy like the outsides of our bodies.

Different types of insects can look very different from each other, but they all have the same characteristics.

They are all invertebrates, so they do not have spines.

They all have six jointed legs, no more and no less.

They all have a segmented body with three parts.

Remember those parts are called the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.

And they all have a pair of antenna on their head to help them sense the world around them.

You can see these characteristics really clearly on this picture of an ant.

It has a pair of antenna on its head, it has six legs, and it has a body divided into three sections.

You can see the head at the top, the thorax in the middle with the six legs attached, and the abdomen at the end.

If a small animal does not have all of these characteristics, then it's not an insect.

Time For another quick check for understanding, take a look at this statement and decide whether you think it's true or false.

A spider is an insect.

Here is a picture of a spider to help you.

It is false, a spider is not an insect.

Now, can you justify your answer? Is it false because a spider has eight legs and insects only have six? Or is it false because a spider is a small animal with no spine and an exoskeleton? Great, a spider is not an insect because it has eight legs.

All insects only have six legs.

You can also see in that picture that the spider's body is divided into two segments and insects have three.

Now that we've found out all about the characteristics of insects, let's try a practise test to apply that knowledge.

This test has two parts.

The first part, you need to sort the animals shown here into groups according to whether they're or are not insects.

You might need to carry out some research to find out the characteristics of the animals, or you might be able to see enough in the pictures to work it out.

The animals you'll need to sort are lady birds, snails, earthworms, horse flies, woodlice, bees, spiders, centipedes, shield beetles, and crickets.

Pause the video here and have a go at sorting these 10 little creatures into insects and not insects.

Here are our answers.

The insects are lady birds, bees, shield beetles, horse flies, and crickets.

And the animals that are not insects are, snails, spiders, centipedes, earthworms and woodlice.

How did you find that task? Were some of them harder than others? Did any surprise you? Sometimes people think that all small creatures, like the ones we've looked at here, are insects.

Were there any that you used to think were insects? I used to think that woodlice and centipedes were insects, but now I know that they have too many legs.

For the second part of this task, your job is to use modelling clay, salt dough, or plasticine to create a model of an insect on paper or on a whiteboard, or you can draw one if you don't have access to any of those things.

It doesn't have to be a perfect copy of a real insect, but what you do need to do is make sure your animal has all of the characteristics of insects.

When you have made your model or drawn your picture, add labels around your insect naming the different parts.

So if you've made your insect on a piece of paper, you can draw these on it in pencil, or if you've done it on a whiteboard, then you can use a whiteboard pen to add the labels.

Pause the video here again to have a go.

Welcome back.

Did you enjoy creating your insect? Here's mine.

You can take a look at this one to help you work out whether you remembered all of the important characteristics to include in your insect.

So yours should have a pair of antennae, a head, a thorax in the middle with six jointed legs coming off it, and an abdomen at the bottom of the insect.

You'll notice in my picture, I've just labelled one antenna, though I have written the word antenna, not antennae.

Do you remember to get the correct spelling depending on whether you labelled one or two.

Let's move on to the second part of our lesson.

Now, finding insects.

Do you know the names of any insects? Maybe you know the name of a red insect with black spots, or perhaps you know the name for a fuzzy black and yellow one that likes to drink at different flowers.

Or maybe you know the names of some other insects.

Remember, all insects have six legs, so if you're thinking of any little creatures with eight legs, or maybe no legs at all, and those won't be insects, they'll be a different kind of animal.

Let's look at some photographs of common insects.

Can you name any of these? This is a very small insect and you usually see lots of them together, maybe walking in a long line.

Sometimes they can get into your house and be a bit of a pest.

This is an ant.

Now this insect can be very irritating if it gets into your house.

Have you ever seen one indoors or outside? This one is called a fly.

Now you'll definitely have seen some of these insects, but maybe with a different pattern on their wings? This insect is a butterfly.

There are lots of different types of butterfly in the UK.

This one here is called a red admiral butterfly.

And finally, do you know the name of this insect? This one is a beetle.

You often see these crawling around in fields or woodland.

Were there any insects you thought of that aren't here? The ones that I was thinking about were ladybirds and bees.

There are over 24,000 different types of insects in the UK.

They live in different types of habitats, including meadows, forests, beaches, and cities.

They're pretty much everywhere.

Which types of insects have you seen around your home or school? Whether you live or go to school in the inner city, in the middle of the countryside, or right by the coast, There will most definitely be lots of insects around.

Time for another quick check for understanding, take a look at these pictures of insects and see if you can match the name to the correct picture.

Pause the video now and have a try.

Let's see how you did.

The ant is the little dark brown insect with no wings.

The fly is the insect with big red eyes and wings.

The butterfly is this one at the top with big white wings.

This type of butterfly is called a cabbage white butterfly because of its white wings.

And last but not least, the beetle is the green one.

There are lots of different types of beetle.

You can see that this one looks quite different to the large black one we looked at earlier.

Now it's time for you to get moving and find some insects for yourself.

For your practise task, you need to go on an insect hunt in your local area.

There are not many insects that live indoors, so you'll have to go outside if you want to find many of them.

Good places to look might be on or around trees, in grassy areas, and places with lots of flowers.

Equipment like hand lenses, magnifiers, and pooters, will help you get a closer look at the insects.

You might also find it useful to take some paintbrushes with you to gently sweep the insects you find into containers so you can get a closer look.

For each insect you find, draw a simple labelled diagram and write its name if you know what it's called.

It doesn't matter if your drawing isn't perfect and it doesn't need to be detailed.

It just needs to be clear and show what the insect looks like, so don't spend too much time on each one, and don't worry if they aren't beautifully drawn.

Remember to care for all living things.

Insects may be very small, but they are still animals with lives of their own, and they need to be treated with care and respect.

If you do pick up any insects with your paintbrush or pooter, make sure you do it very gently so the insect isn't harmed.

Don't pick any insects up with your bare hands.

Remember, some of them can sting or bite.

Also, make sure that any insects you move for observation, get carefully put back into their habitats when you are finished.

And to keep you safe, make sure you wash your hands thoroughly when you are finished and you come back inside.

Pause the video now and head outside for your insect hunt.

I can't wait to see what you find.

How did you do? Did you find any insects that you knew the names of? Did you find any that you hadn't seen before? If you did find any insects that you didn't know about, you could carry out some research to find out their names or to learn more about them.

These children also went on an insect hunt, and this is what they found.

Jun found lots of ants and a big black beetle.

Lucas found and drew a green shield beetle and a colourful butterfly.

He also labelled the different parts of each insect.

Laura found a bumblebee, a caterpillar, and a moth.

Did you find any of these insects? Did you find anything different? That brings us to the end of our lesson today.

Let's refresh ourselves on the key learning from today's lesson.

Insects are small animals with six jointed legs and typically one or two pairs of wings.

All insects have three parts to their segmented bodies and a pair of antennae.

Insects are invertebrates that have an exoskeleton to support and protect their bodies.

Common insects are ants, flies, butterflies, and beetles.

Thank you so much for joining me today to learn about insects and thank you for all of your efforts with insect hunting.

You did really well to make careful and gentle observations, especially if you are one of those people who doesn't like creepy crawlies very much.

Hopefully learning all about them has made you appreciate insects a little more and understand how cool they are.

See you again next time.