Ladybugs in the Classroom

Today we learned about ladybugs in school. Ladybugs in the classroom are a great way to integrate fun and lots of other subjects too. First, we labeled the parts of a ladybug. Then we worked on a ladybug glyph. A glyph is a great learning tool that lets students learn ways to visually represent data. This is a shapes ladybug glyph, so each question on the glyph asked the kiddos to add another shape like an oval or circle for the ladybug head to the ladybug. 

We sorted through lots of old buttons--which was fun--and used these for our ladybug eyes.

 I think the ladybug glyphs turned out cute as a button.

Student ladybug glyph

Teacher ladybug glyph example

Then we used some web resources to learn even more. I liked seeing how the humane society used ladybugs for a good purpose. Here are the online ladybug resources we used.

Life Cycle of a Ladybug Video

Humane Society Ladybug Solution

Everything about Ladybugs

Ladybug Resources

Then we integrated some writing. I chose to use a draw and write writing prompt where the kiddos draw about what they've read and then they write about it.

Ladybug writing prompt

 We cut and pasted the life cycle pictures to paper plates. This is such a good way to make a nice learning display.

Life cycle of a ladybug plate craft

We even got a bit creative and made a ladybug headband hat. Just take two sentence strips and tape them together. Then tape the ladybug glyph to the front and the life cycle of a ladybug illustrations on the side.

Ladybug fun

Ladybug headband craft

We planted butterfly bushes to attract butterflies a couple of year ago. Each plant was less than five dollars. In no time, they are taller than I am, and they are a wonderful habitat for our insect studies. We took the camera with us and looked under the leaves to see if we could find any ladybug eggs.  Guess what..?...

Student picture of a ladybug larva

We found something even better. We found a ladybug larva. They are ugly little things. Forget the ugly duckling. What about the ugly ladybug?

Ladybug larva

The world is our classroom and learning is fun. We enjoyed our ladybug exploration, and there's even more fun things to come.  We're working with graphing our ladybug glyph data tomorrow.

The ideas in this post came from my teacher-created resource title Ladybugs! {Shape Glyph, Writing Prompts, Graphs, and Life Cycle}. Click {HERE} for more information about this ladybug learning resource.

Here's a parts of a ladybug printable freebie that's part of my Ladybugs! set free for you too. Click {HERE} to get your free printable ladybug activity.

Free Printable Ladybug Activity

Enjoy!

Robin @ Sweet Tea Classroom

This post is linked to:

Teacher-Created St. Patrick's Day Activities and Education Bloggers To Follow

One thing I love about teaching is the talent other teachers bring to the classroom. I have to admit that teachers are a creative group. I'd like to introduce you to a group of creative, talented teacher bloggers. Please take a moment to visit their blogs listed below.

• Sweet Tea Classroom
• Simply Skilled in Second
• Teach 123
• My (Not So) Elementary Life
• Journey of a Substitute Teacher
• Peace, Love, and First Grade
• My Life as a Third Grade Teacher
• Flying Into First
• Fabulously First
• 2nd Grade Surprise
• Fluttering Through First Grade
• Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas
 

Here's a great collection of teacher-created St. Patrick's Day Activities too. Please click the links below to check them out.

St. Patrick's Day Story Starters: Common Core Narrative Writing Prompts for St. Patrick's Fun

Here's some super writing fun for St. Patrick's Day! Bring the fun of leprechauns, rainbows, magic, and gold coins into the classroom with these fun and creative St. Patrick's writing prompts. These St. Patrick's Day story starters encourage students to be creative and come up with creative stories with their story starters. Plus, they are perfect for your writing centers.

A story starter is a great tool to get students writing using creative ideas. A story starter provides a prompt that creates a scenario that, well, starts the story. Then students have a free license to finish the story any way they wish. Plus, they help you meet your Common Core narrative writing goals.

I took my story starters, added great glittery rainbow graphics, put them on pencils, and added them to a canister that I got from the dollar store. They can choose their own story starter and even use their new St. Patrick's Day pencil and write away through the season.

You can purchase my St. Patrick's Day Story Starters {HERE}.