Flannel Friday: The Cicadas are Coming

The cicadas are coming. I haven't seen any yet, but everyone tells me it's just a matter of time. I was pretty young the last time there was a big cicada season and I remember that they scared the bejesus out of me. The constant loud noises and the crunchy exoskeletons they left everywhere? I still get the shivers just thinking about it.

So I did what any rational person would do and I made a cicada flannel board for a story time about bugs. I think the end result is terrifying- cicadas should not be neon colors, but it also de-mystified the whole thing for the kids, and that's what it's really about. Also, I learned that cicadas had 5 eyes. How weird/cool is that?

We started with just a body...

And added the 6 legs, counting the whole time...

The two long upper wings for coverage...

And the two lower wings. Then we gave him the 2 big eyes on the sides of his head...

And the 3 small eyes in the middle. Then we laughed about what we would see if we had 5 eyes...

Finally we gave him his mouth sucker and made great slurping sounds to mimic how he would sound when he ate..

And just because we're not at all scared of this creepy crawly thing, we made him go away one piece at a time, Go Away Big Green Monster style.

Flannel Friday is hosted this week by Sarah at Read It Again! For more information on Flannel Friday, including where you can catch up on missed round-ups (I've been doing a lot of that lately) check out the official website.