Lesson Overview:

A cooperative lesson between the classroom teacher and the visual arts teacher, students will develop basic knowledge of Magicicada (also known as a periodical cicada). They will learn about the appearance, life cycle and behavior of cicadas. Students will work from life to create collage cicadas. Students may create poems using facts about cicadas along with origami replicas.

Length of Lesson:

Two 45-minute periods

Instructional Objectives:

Students will:

• identify the physical characteristics of a periodical cicada
• identify the sequence of stages in the life cycle of a periodical cicada
• enact the transition from nymph to adult cicada
• create collage cicadas
• use facts about cicadas to create poems

Supplies:

• Terrarium (optional)
• Live cicadas (optional)
• Nymph shells (optional)
• Crayons
• Orange tissue paper
• Black, red and orange construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Pencils
• Paper
• Origami paper or bright colored paper (copier/printer variety)

Instructional Plan:

Warm Up

Read aloud poems about insects from Insect Soup: Bug Poems and/or Beast Feast. Have students answer the following questions:

• Which creatures were mentioned in the poems?
• What did the poem tell you about the creatures?
• How are the creatures similar/different?
• Have students list the kinds of insects with which they are familiar.
• Have students discuss the physical characteristics of these insects.

What is a cicada?

The University of Michigan’s Museum of Zoology, Insect Division Web site has created a complete site on the periodical cicada.

It has a wealth of information on cicada's the life cycle, as well as drawings of the cicada's body parts. Use this site to familiarize yourself with the parts and then show students the terrarium of cicadas (if available). Have students describe the physical characteristics of the periodical cicada, and students identify the empty nymph shells in the terrarium.

Describe the cicada’s life cycle to the students. Watch the Magicicada Slideshow that shows the complete life cycle of the cicada.

Topics to discuss with the students are as follows:

• The female cicada lays eggs in a series of slits she makes on the underside of a tree twig.
• She lays up to twenty eggs in each of these eggnests, laying up to 400-600 eggs in total.
• Six weeks later the eggs hatch into ant-like nymphs, which drop from the trees and burrow 1-10 feet underground until they find a tree root.
• In the case of periodical cicadas, the nymphs live underground for 13-17 years, feeding off the sap of the tree roots.
• In late spring the nymphs construct exit tunnels and crawl out of the ground and up a tree or plant stem, usually at night.
• Soon after they have emerged the cicadas' skin splits and they shed their shells, a process called molting.
• Male cicadas emit a loud, buzzing mating call to attract the female cicadas. The males live for around two weeks, and the females for around six.
• Magicicada adults have black bodies and striking red eyes and orange wing veins, with a black "W" near the tips of the forewings.

Group work

Have students find a space on the floor. Guide students through an enactment of a cicada shedding his nymphal skin. Set the scene for the students and explain that this is a dramatization. If available, any baskets or tubes would be useful props. Students can crawl out of the basket or tube to simulate burrowing out from underground. You can also buy some very inexpensive black pieces of cloth to drape over students to pretend that they are underground and burrowing out. Have students enact the following as you read to them. You might dim the lights in the beginning and as they emerge turn them back on.

• It’s very quiet and dark under the ground. You’ve been underground for seventeen years!
• It’s time for you to come up above ground.
• Wiggle your six little legs as you crawl up, up to the surface.
• You’re above ground and you’ve found a tree to climb up. Up, up, up you climb.
• Now it’s time for you to shed your skin. S-t-r-e-t-c-h. Your skin splits straight down the middle of your back.
• Push out one of your legs, now the second leg. Stretch out your third leg, fourth, fifth and sixth leg.
• Now wiggle, wiggle to shake off your skin.
• Slowly unfold your wings and hold them out to dry.
• Take a deep breath in and out.
• Relax.

Have students describe how it felt to act like a cicada. Record words that evoke images or feelings. Talk about the different stages that a cicada goes through and how each stage can be demonstrated through creative movements.

• Living underground with no light for many years
• Burrowing out from underground
• Climbing a tree or plant stem and finding a place to hang on
• Shedding nymphal skin, or molting

Repeat the dramatization several times, adding to the list of sensory and feeling words.

Students should use the facts that they have learned about cicadas to write short poems of four to eight lines. Explain to the students that although many of the poems they have heard growing up (nursery rhymes) have included rhyming words, not all poems must rhyme. Some poems are simply descriptive in nature, allowing the poet to tell in his or her own words what he/she visualizes or feels. Poems can also be in the form of riddle. (Scholastic.com has a wonderful site for educators with additional ideas for teaching poetry in the classroom.)

Have students think back to the dramatization and refer to the words on the board. Have students complete their four to eight line poem and read it to a partner. Have the partner listen and see if they understand the meaning in the poem. Have the partners offer suggestions to each other in ways that might improve the poem. The students will then go back and revise their poem if necessary. Even though a few may not be done as yet with the poem have them stop and begin the demonstration of creating a cicada collage. They can return to their poems after you have given directions. This way the whole class is not waiting for a few.

Have students brainstorm the body parts needed to create a collage, and list them—and their colors and shapes—on the board or chart paper. Have them once again look at the live cicadas in the terrarium or again visit the MSNBC Web site so that the students can see a great photo of a live cicada. They should use this to model their cut paper collage ideas for replicating the cicada on paper. If you have access to a video projector (LCD Projector) you may show the image on the board or a screen for them to use as an example as well. A drawing also is available at the College of Mount St. Joseph Web site.

A collage is cut pieces of any materials, glued to a background to create an overall design. In this case, students will use construction and tissue paper. Have several examples ready to show them in various stages of creation. Begin by making your cicadas.

Explain to the students that they must pre-plan:

• Decide how many cicadas they will include in their picture.
• Decide on the size or sizes of the cicadas (all the same or a variety of sizes—large to small).
• How will the cicadas be viewed, from the side or top down?
• Will our background be the ground, a tree trunk, a leaf, or leaves?
• Where will the cicada be in relation to the background?

Once this is done students can begin to create their cicadas.

Have students:

• Use a crayon to draw an oval on black construction paper.
• Talk about the difference between an oval and a circle.
• Cut out the basic cicada shape.
• Write their name on the back of each bug as they cut it out.
• Cut out the antennae from black paper and glue on to the basic shape in the correct location.
• Cut out the appropriate size eyes out of red construction paper.
• Cut out the appropriate size skinny rectangles with the orange construction paper for legs.
• Cut out the appropriate size raindrop shapes from the orange tissue paper for the wings.
• Assemble and glue the body parts in place.
• Use a black crayon to add the pattern of lines on the wings and the pupils on the eye.
• Look again at the picture displayed on the board or at the real cicadas in the terrarium and determine if they need to add any other parts or colors to the cut paper cicada to make it more life like.
• Continue creating other cicadas.
• Prepare the background paper according to what they choose above in the planning of the picture (tree, ground, leaves).
• Glue the cicadas on to the background paper. Ask students to think how they are gluing them on.
• Does it look realistic?

Closure

Have students regroup following cleanup. Have students share their collage cicadas, and poems with the class. Have students talk about what they have learned or how their feelings about cicadas have changed during the lesson.

Assessment:

See the accompanying Assessment Rubric handout.

Sources:

Print:

• Florian, Douglas., Beast Feast. Voyager Books, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994.
• Frost, Helen., Cicadas. Capstone Press, January 2001. Squire, Ann. O., Cicadas. Scholastic Library publishing, March 2004.
• Johnson, Sharon. S., Cicada Mania. Sun Scoop, for kids, by kids. The Baltimore Sun. April 21 2004.
• Polisar, Barry Louis and Clark, David., Insect Soup: Bug Poems. Rainbow Morning Music Alternatives, March 1999.

Authors:

• Morag Armour, Art Teacher
  Harlem Park Elementary School
  Baltimore, Maryland