Learning about Ladybugs!

Bunny has recently decided that she LOVES Ladybugs, and that she wants to "do" them in school. So it was up to mommy to be very creative, very quickly so as to come up with some great ways to learn about Ladybugs. The first thing that I wanted to teach her was the parts of the Ladybug. I don't have the traditional Montessori puzzle for insects, so I made a Ladybug out of felt. My little ladybug turned out well and it offered her a way to lift up all different parts so that she could see how they all work together. I also purchased the Parts of a Ladybug cards from Montessori Print Shop.

Here is the Ladybug I made along with the 3 part cards.

Bunny doing the 3 part cards.



I also had a chance to get to the Library and pick up about every book I could find about Ladybugs! :) Bunny and I have read a bunch of them. I think that it is amazing how much a few simple books can teach! Just reading can offer SO much information. I know that I forget to just read about our theme sometimes. Its a good reminder for me! :)
Another Ladybug thing that I did with the girls this week was painting peg people. I gave Bunny, Bug, and Pup red and black paint and let them paint a peg person to look like a Ladybug (I may have painted one too). The results were pretty good, but they were soon done with their peg person, but not done painting. So I got out some paper and showed them a simple way to paint Ladybugs (that is who did the small red ones on Bug and Pup's painting). This idea allowed them to make some amazing art work! I was really proud of their creativity! Unfortunately for my little artists, my camera battery died, so there are no pics of the work.

Peg People:

Pup's, Bug's, Bunny's, and mine ;)

Bunny wanted to add wings and antennas!

The Ladybug Art!

Bunny's on the left, Bug's on top, and Pup's on the bottom.



Finally, the other thing that I have gotten together this week was a Ladybug poetry basket! I found a cute little poem online that was perfect. I have always liked the poetry basket idea, but the importance of using poems and song to help with reading readiness didn't really hit me until I read   "A Path for the Exploration of Any Language Leading to Writing and Reading" by Muriel Dwyer. To read about this see my post about reading here.



So it was a good Ladybug week. The part that I thought was a great God moment was that we found a living Ladybug at my mom's house that must have woken up in the warm house! It was cool to see Bunny holding that little bug and see her thinking about it in relation to what we learned. She looked at it for a bit then she let it go outside in a safe place! :) I was so happy to be able to let her see a real ladybug. Here in Northern Ohio at this time of year, its not an easy task! So now, Bunny has told me that she wants her bedroom to be a Ladybug room! I guess we are going to start decorating!