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thevirtualvine.com 2010

 

Ladybugs

 

 

Interesting facts about ladybugs:

Ladybugs are also known as ladybirds and ladybird beetles

They are part of the beetle family

They are dome shaped

They have 6 legs & 2 antennas

They have 2 wings & can fly

They come in other colors, not just red & black

They can be orange, yellow or red

They can have spots are no spots

7 spots are the most common

Number of spots could be 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15

Their life cycle is egg, larva, pupa, ladybug

They eat aphids and other insects

They are sometimes used in a garden in place of pesticide

As protection they can produce a bad smelling & bad tasting chemical

or even play dead

They live in gardens, fields, trees, flowers, & bushes

 

Books:

The Grouchy Ladybug - Eric Carle

Home Sweet Home - Christine Tagg

 

Activities:

Bulletin Board Captions:

 

Look Who's Been Spotted at School

 

This Is the Right Spot for YOU!

 

My bulletin board creation.  It's not exactly what I envisioned, but I like it! :)

Oh, I smudged the kids' names in the photo.  I painted the flowers and made the

ladybugs from construction paper with wiggly eyes and pipecleaner antennas.

 

Grouchy Ladybug: I found out doing this unit that I don't like the book The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle.  How disappointing.  Of course the easiest activity to do with the book is make a ladybug with a clock on her back or under her wings and let the kids set their clock as you go through the book.

Beginning/ending Sounds: Use these printables to create ladybugs.  Print the body on red cardstock and the head & spots on black.  Place the head on one end of the body, overlapping about half the size of the head shape and glue to create the ladybug.  Glue beginning/ending sounds picture to head.  Program 2 spots with beginning & ending sound for each picture using white paint pen or white letter stickers.  Laminate all.  Students say picture name on ladybug then find black spot with beginning sound & place on left side of body.  Identify ending sound and place that spot on right side of body.

Ladybug Beginning/Ending Sounds

Alternate version for printing: print heads on black cardstock and spots & pictures on white cardstock.  Spots are labeled with beginning/ending sounds for pictures.

Ladybug Spots

 

Making New Words:  The Teacher's Bookbag

 

Hall Display: This is a photo of several projects together.  First the kids painted and put together a ladybug.  Then they wrote about the ladybug using the sentence frames.  Next, they wrote a math sentence to go with the spots on their ladybug.  And last they used a sequencing activity to create their own ladybug snack.  (the picture of the snack didn't turn out very well, so I'll try to get a photo when I make it with Dakota) 

Ladybug Snack: This was a last minute idea that I came up with.  Turn a fudge striped cookie upside down and ice with red frosting.  Add a small chocolate cookie for the head.  (I used 100 Calorie Snack cookie)  Then add 5 chocolate chips and eat!  You can add 2 red eyes with the frosting if you'd like, but that was too much trouble this time around. 

  

Ladybug Glyph:  We did this ladybug glyph from The Mailbox.

 

Letter L: Use the ladybug theme to introduce/reinforce Letter L and it's sound.  Copy letter Ll onto red construction paper and have students add black dots with bingo stamper.  Or, copy onto green construction paper and have students make thumbprints using red ink.  Then go back with a black crayon and add dots.  Use a pen or Sharpie to add antennae.

Ladybug Spots: Counting the spots on a ladybug leads to great math activities.  Here's something that I purchased from Lakeshore years ago.   Students add the spots according to the number.

Lakeshore Magnetic Counting Activity:

 

Resources:

The Mailbox  K  April/May  2010

The Mailbox   K-1  April/May 2006

 

 

Links:

Ladybug Lids

http://www.craftsbyamanda.com/2010/04/plastic-lid-ladybugs.html

 

Ladybug Jar

http://www.craftsbyamanda.com/2010/04/recycled-ladybug-jar.html

 

Paperplate Ladybugs

http://www.craftsbyamanda.com/2010/03/paper-plate-lady-bugs.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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7.12.10

last updated 10.3.10