Coleoptera Around the World (a game about beetles)
“Coleoptera Around the World” (a game about beetles and weevils)
Purpose of activity: To get an overview of the great variety of beetles and weevils within the order Coleoptera.
Description of game: Players listen to clues about beetles and weevils, and then try to guess which one is being described. They find the picture on the map and put their token on it. When the answer is given, if they were correct, they receive a picture of that beetle to pin onto their “collection.” The clues can be adjusted to suit the knowledge level of your players. There isn’t any official “winner” of the game. This might sound lame, but it actually worked pretty well in my classroom. The students were very enthusiastic simply about collecting and pinning the beetle pictures.
Target age group: 8 to 12
Time needed: For set up, about 15 minutes or so (just some cutting and a little pasting). For playing, the time can be very flexible. You need not use all the insects if time is short.
Materials needed: color copies of the pattern pages, scissors, glue stick and clear tape, tokens to mark player positions on map, long pins (such as quilting pins that have a colored ball at the top), a Styrofoam or cardboard sheet onto which the insect pictures can be pinned (If using pins is not an option, the pictures can be tacked with glue stick onto a piece of paper.)
