Ll is for Ladybug

Lots and lots of Ladybugs. Again, I got most of these ideas from Make Learning Fun. All of these activities are made from felt and are soooo easy to make. You can find all the templates from the website. This helps with counting and recognizing numbers. J has counting down, but we are still working on number recognition.

There's also a rhyme that goes with this activity.

(Tune: The Muffin Man)

Ladybug has 1 black spot, 1 black spot, 1 black spot. Ladybug has 1 black spot, Pretty ladybug. continue counting up with each verse.

This next activity was mostly for Lulu. We are really focusing on colors with her. She is doing a lot better. This is a game. Have the kids close their eyes (or turn around, since my kids like to peek) and hide the small lady bug under one of the frying pans. Then sing, or say the rhyme,

Ladybug, Ladybug. Fly away home. Your house is on fire, your children all gone. All except one and that’s little Ann and she crept under the frying pan.

They then have to guess which one the ladybug is under by calling out the color they think it's under. My kid LOVED this game. I did make the pans about half the size of the template though, and they were still plenty big enough for the smaller lady bug to fit under. It saved me a lot of felt. :)

The third activity is a practice in subtraction. I ended up using the same template for the baby ladybug in the previous game (again, to save felt), and just left of the wiggly eyes.

Here's the rhymes for this one.

Five Little Ladybugs Five little ladybugs by the door, one flew away and now there are only four. Four little ladybugs climbing the tree, one flew away and now there are only three. Three little ladybugs crawling near the shoe, one flew away and now there are two. Two little ladybugs having lots of fun, one flew away and now there is only one. One little ladybug all alone, he/she spread her wing and he/she flew home.

Ten Little Ladybugs Tune: Five Little Ducks Ten little ladybugs flying all around, they flew very high then they landed on the ground. The last ladybug said have a nice day, then he spread his wings and flew away….

Continue…

One little ladybug flying all around, it flew very high then it landed on the ground. The last ladybug said have a nice day, then he/she spread his/her wings and flew away….

And finally for our arts and crafts activity, we painted ladybug rocks. First coat red. When it's dry, paint on the head and spots. I was going to do eyes, but decided it was good enough. :)