Preschool Insect & Bug Songs

Hello my friends,

I am happy to report that it has FINALLY warmed up here in Minnesota and Spring has sprung!!

And so, too have all the bugs! All the insects and bugs really do become a part of every day life in the summer: flies, bees, butterflies, spiders, mosquitos….and more!

So, you know me, I figure – let’s celebrate the bugs! Below I have nine preschool insect songs for you to have fun with. Songs and rhymes with motions and a couple to go along with The Very Hungry Caterpillar book. Here’s the full list of of preschool insect song videos you’ll find below:

 

 

1. Roly Poly Caterpillar
2. Shoo Fly (Don’t bother me)
3. I Had A Little Turtle (Yes – despite the name, it is about some insect friends…!)
4. I’m Bringing Home A Baby Bumblebee
5. On My Toe There Is A Flea
6. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Counting Song
7. The Itsy Bitsy Spider (And the Great Big Spider, too!)
8. Here Is A Beehive (and Baby Bumblebee too!)
9. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Went Out One Day

 

 

So scroll down and hit play to start the fun!!

1. Roly Poly Caterpillar

You can do this as a fingerplay or a full body creative movement exercise – or both! Miss Nina shows you how:

2. Shoo Fly (Don’t bother me)

This one is a lot of fun! Although I show you motions to do with it, I do seem to find that kids often just LOVE to skip around the room to this one.

 

3. I Had A Little Turtle

Yes, although it IS about a little turtle, it’s also about some insect friends. And this one is a fun fingerplay  – with a little bit of acting in it that the kids love!

4. I’m Bringing Home A Baby Bumblebee

Ok friends – this was my first video to ever hit 1 Million views!! And now it’s rounding the corner of 2 million! And I don’t exactly know why except that kids love this song. I don’t know if it’s the silliness of when we wipe off the baby bumblebee, that it’s kinda gross or what – but they do love it.

When I was in day camp, we did a much grosser version of this song…..so when I started doing it with preschoolers & toddlers I decided to edit it to the version in this video.

And for the record: I do not promote hurting bees!!!! It’s just an old camp song that kids think is silly and fun. (And, I was even told once that it was written as a song for kids to wash their hands and/or bodies, too: putting soap on their hands and pretending the soap is the bee. ???)

5. On My Toe There Is A Flea

Technically this is about a flea. But it’s mostly useful as a song for going up and down the musical scale. It’s a fun one to do on/with little babies; but, I love it best as a gathering song/attention-getter. Some times after a bit fun dance song, to get everyone focused and calm I’ll go from standing to sitting very quickly and touch my toe. They usually all join me and it gets their attention really fast. Try it!

6. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Counting Song:

Although the official Very Hungry Caterpillar has been proclaimed as March 21st (first day of Spring), I usually wait until May for a Very Hungry Caterpillar Unit.  A couple of years ago, I took the tune of Alice the Camel and used it to make a song out of the middle of the VHC book. Now, I read the first two pages, sing the middle, and then read the last two pages for a full musical book experience! Now you can too:

7. The Itsy Bitsy Spider

This is a pretty old video (2012 I think?) but still a good one. Follow along with me and to the Itsy Bitsy Spider AND the Great Big Spider. I LOVE doing this version of the song in my classes:

8. Here Is A Beehive (and Baby Bumblebee again!)

Here Is a Beehive is a really fun counting song, We get to count to five with our fingers, and kids love the sudden buzzing of bees when we get to 5. I almost always end up singing Baby Bumblebee right after we do Here Is A Beehive, so in this video, I thought I’d do the same! It’s a whole lot of fun:

9. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Went Out One Day

So, way back in 2008 when I first did a Very Hungry Caterpillar unit in my preschool classroom…..I couldn’t find any songs to really go along with the theme. So, I took the format of Old MacDonald and used it to tell the story of the VHC. So as you may guess it starts “The Very Hungry Caterpillar went out one day E-I-E-I-O….”

In this song we get to “crunch munch” here and “crunch munch there”, as well as sleep in a cocoon (“honk choo” here…) and then turn into a butterfly and flutter away “flutter flutter here, and flutter flutter there….”. You can sit and sing along or you can stand and do all the motions as a creative movement exercise.

ENJOY!

 

And there you have it, friends! NINE preschool insect songs to enjoy and celebrate al the fun bugs we start to see in the Spring. I hope you find these videos, songs and rhymes helpful. Please feel free to share this post or any of the videos with anyone you think would enjoy them.

Have a Happy Spring!

XOXO

Miss Nina