The Periodical Cicada

The cicadas sure are noisy this year! It's too loud to be able to make a phone call outside. Listening to them shriek made me think about all the resources I have collected over the past 13 years for teaching about cicadas.

Here's the list. Let me know if you have other favorites!


Cicadas! Strange and Wonderful
by Laurence Pringle

Joyful Nose: Poems for Two Voices
by Paul Fleischman

Return of the Cicadas video
just beautiful! skip between 3:40 and 4:30 if your child is sensitive to the animal in the documentary being eaten, since it does show a few instances

We also did "Why Not Eat Insects?" as an Earth Day theme back in 2012.
I will do this again in 2026. It's a fantastic prompt for persuasive writing!

Save the Planet, Eat a Bug
The New Yorker - Aug 8, 2011

We even have a cicada cookbook to hand out. Published by the University of Maryland Cicadamaniacs. El Chirper Tacos, anyone?

Cicada-Licious: Cooking and Enjoying Periodical Cicadas (PDF)

a very interesting Cicada Emergence Formula, which requires students to caculate the Average Mean Temperature in Celsius in April!

even more Cicada Resources (PDF) collected by Towson University

Past blog posts:

It's Monarch Time!
Aug 27, 2023

Life Cycle of the House Fly
Sep 11, 2020

More Insect Life Cycles
Sep 12, 2020

Insects: House Fly, Periodical Cicada, Ant Lion
Sep 17, 2020

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