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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
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