Ladybugs! One of my favorite things about this unit is teaching the life cycle with the real bugs. It's interesting how few of us actually know the life cycle of a ladybug, and recognize its larva. I don't think I knew until I taught Kindergarten! And I remember my daughter and nephew showing their grandma a larva in her yard and she had no idea! My boys found several in the neighbor's yard and she didn't believe them that they were ladybugs! It's kinda fun empowering these preschoolers with knowledge that so many grown ups around them don't have, so they can teach them something new! Here's how our larvae looked when they arrived, and how they grew and changed! I order all our bugs from Insect Lore.
Tiny larvae:
Growing bigger:
And bigger:
Pupae!
Caught this one right after it changed. The pupa is yellow for just a few hours before it hardens and turns black:
And ladybugs!
Most activities were bug-themed, but I also fit in some art and other activities that weren't going to fit into favorites week, or that we just hadn't had time to do and are so fun!
Dramatic Play
Flower garden full of bugs!
Blocks
Bug floor puzzle
Ladybug ABC puzzle
ABC puzzle
Magnets
Art
Water colors
Paint with bug stamps
Gelatin molds. So fun! Just plain gelatin in different molds. I have squirters and colored water they can stick into them, or some just tore it apart with their hands. Such a fun and unique sensory experience.
Jello shakers. I love the way they make the room smell!
Small Manipulatives
Flat marble pages
Ladybug line tracing and dry erase markers
Ladybug math (after we had done in small group)
Magnets
Writing
ladybug stamp markers
Outside
Once again, we got so lucky! We often see ladybugs near our peach trees, so we went searching there first for ladybugs. And we found some! Not only that, but we found aphids, so now the kids could see in real life, outside of books, what we're talking about when we talk about ladybugs eating aphids! Plus, super lucky, we saw ladybug larvae too! We took a twig of aphids in to feed our larvae too and they loved them! But then some other tiny bug was also on the twig and kinda infested the ladybug land, so I did have the wipe down the glass and pull out the ones I could. Who knew caring for bugs could be so much work?
Large Group
Day 1, we learned about the ladybug life cycle and cut out and made one.
Day 2, we did math. We read 5 Little Ladybugs, then they each took a turn rolling the dice and cutting out that many ladybugs. We then added them to our graphs. They each took 2 turns.
Day 3, we read The Grouchy Ladybug and made a ladybug. I cut out the body and we found its 3 parts (head, thorax, abdomen). They practiced cutting on the wings. I attached it with a brad so the wings could open. They added 6 legs and antennae, and colored their spots.
Day 4, we reviewed all our bug life cycles and, with partners, took turns putting them all in order with our models (ants, ladybugs, praying mantis, butterfly).
Small Group
Wrote in our journals what we learned about ants.
My group did ladybug math with the mats pictured above in small manips. With my "magic" dice that have one die inside another, they made an addition equation. One die determined how many spots they added on one wing, the other die determined how many on the next wing. Then they counted them all together to tell me how many dots they had all together. Great counting and addition practice!
The second week, they journaled their favorite fact about ladybugs.
My group did more lady bug counting. They picked a leaf card that had a number on it, then counted that many ladybugs onto that leaf. Show the teacher, and repeat with new leaf card and new number. I really worked with them on one-to-one correspondence as they counted.
**Just wanted to add a note about teaching children about bugs. I personally don't like bugs. At all. But I've never wanted my kids to know that! I haven't wanted them to be afraid of them either. So I'm careful what I say when I'm around them and we see bugs, and I feed into their natural curiosity about bugs by pointing them out and naming them so they know what they are, and teaching them which ones can bite or sting, and which are fine to hold. My kids love digging for worms and catching ladybugs or snails or grasshoppers. The preschool kids do too. They have been more intrigued by these bug units than any other that I teach. I think it's partially due to their natural attraction to bugs, and partly because these are things we find outside in our own yards and they can explore them on their own. I hope you parents can too feed your children's curiosity about bugs! If we teach them they're gross or scary, they'll believe us. I don't love pulling up rocks and finding bugs under them, but my kids do and so I encourage it by doing it with them! And I've actually learned so much about bugs myself! So I hope you can continue feeding this curiosity we've started and get digging for bugs in your won yards, and learning more about them! They can be a lot of fun! And even if none of these kids grow up to be scientists and study bugs, they're hopefully learning a respect for the world around them, and ability to find out more about subjects that fascinate them.
