Insects On Parade: A Musical Revue for Elementary Students

Insects on Parade: A Musical Revue for Elementary Students

By Jeanne and Shanna Anderson

A delightful musical that teaches facts about insects including body parts, life cycles, simple and complex metamorphosis, adaptations, defenses and more. Features crickets, milkweed bugs, ladybugs, ants, darkling beetles, praying mantis, butterflies and moths.

Students are fascinated with interesting vocabulary words and quickly learn to use them when given the opportunity. When your students perform Insects on Parade, they learn facts about insects while having a marvelous time singing and performing. Songs and dialog use accurate, scientific vocabulary in a humorous way. Students will retain the information learned and sing the songs all year long.

Overview: A group of junior entomologists are searching for insects in the park. As they investigate, the insects listen in and discuss their own unique characteristics. Includes crickets, milkweed bugs, ladybugs, ants, darkling beetles, praying mantis, moths, painted lady butterflies, and silkworm moths.

Songs: Many of the songs are sung to familiar tunes and a score with melody line is provided. Songs include:
1. Junior Entomologists
2. Head, Thorax, Abdomen
3. Predators Beware!
4. Why Do People Call Us Ladybugs?
5. Busy, Busy Ants
6. The Darkling Beetle Song
7. Praying Mantis Song
8. Butterflies and Moths
9. Insects on Parade

Running time: 35-40 minutes.

Cast size: The script can easily be adapted to fit a variety of class sizes. We performed with 54 students (our first and second grades classes). You may use more students by adding members to the chorus or dividing the speaking lines among more students, or use fewer students by combining lines or letting students play multiple parts.

Each insect is featured in it’s own “scene” so you can easily delete or add insects. If you would like help customizing the script to your particular class size or desired list of insects, contact me and I will be happy to assist you.

Contents:
• a complete script, including song lyrics, in a Word.docx format so you can make adjustments as desired and also in pdf format
• a complete script without the song lyrics (saves paper when copying) in a Word.docx format and pdf format
• 3 pages of lyrics to reproduce for study purposes
• individual pages showing lyrics of each song so you may study one at a time (works great for display on document camera)
• musical score with melody line for each song
• a wav format file for each song so you can hear the tune (this is just a studying tool with the basic melody line played on piano to give you an idea of the tune, it is not performance quality) *We are in the process of recording the vocals as well.
• template for a program to use at the performance
• vocabulary list of terms about insects
• Junior Entomologist logo
• Production notes giving information about costumes, props, scenery, and hints for putting on a musical production