L is for...Ladybug Lapbook

Cristi from Through the Calm and Through the Storm and Meg from Adventures with Jude are hosting this great weekly party called Blogging Through the Alphabet. All are welcome to join in, just make sure to keep your posts family-friendly. I am determined to stay faithful this time around. I might not always post on the same day of the week, but I have every intention to post something each week.

Here is how I decided my "theme" for this round of Blogging Through the Alphabet. As I was going through old blog posts recently, I noticed I have some neat ideas for activities and crafts that I did with in the past. Unfortunately, I always included them in my weekly wrap up posts or more recently in Poppins Book Nook posts, so they sort of got buried. I can't really share them as individual activities or create pinnable images to promote them and share my ideas, which is why I started this blog in the first place (to share my ideas with others who work with children). So, I am going to make new posts for these ideas.

I have found there is a huge benefit in this strategy. I am remembering  ideas that I had forgotten, which means I can now do these activities with the younger children. I will be sharing the old pictures and possibly sharing new pictures of the younger children participating.

I can't believe it has been 6 years since the older girls and I made these Ladybug Lapbooks while we were going through the alphabet. Tabitha wasn't even 3 years old yet and Amelia was 1 1/2. Hannah wasn't even born.

L is for. . . Ladybug Lapbook

We made thumb print ladybugs on the cover. Our Itsy Bitsy letter L book was found at kidzone.ws. The Parts of a Ladybug matchbook was found at Homeschool Share. 

I loved the idea of doing a life-cycle wheel for the ladybug. I decided to look for a life-cycle picture. I found one I liked at everything-ladybug.com. I printed it out and used a bowl to cut out around it. Then I cut the same size circle out of red construction paper and cut out the wedge window. The girls glued on dots and the head and drew a line down the middle. Tabitha loved turning the wheel and learning about the different stages. She was quite intrigued by the pupa stage and she loved to tell us that the ladybug comes out yellow (something new mommy learned). She would spin the ladybug telling us all about the mommy and daddy ladybug coming together and the mommy laying eggs, then the baby comes out. 

I also printed out a human life-cycle picture and we glued pictures of our family in the correct stage. As I was pregnant with Hannah, we got to put a picture of the baby near the fetus stage. Then I used the girls' own baby pictures and recent picture. I used big brother and sister for adolescents and mommy and daddy for adults. And of course grandma for old age (she might not find that amusing, but she is the closest we have).

And last but not least after counting ladybugs in the Ten Little Ladybugs book by Melanie Gerth, I decided it would be fun to do something with counting ladybugs in the lapbook. I printed out some ladybugs from Homeschool Share, though I couldn't understand what the instructions said to do with them. I decided to cut out blades of grass and do some one to one counting as we have done in the past. I put the number on the top of the grass blade and then the corresponding quantity of ladybugs was glued on. Unfortunately I couldn't find my white glue and had to use glue sticks. I like the liquid glue for these activities so they can clearly see the amount of glue dots that correspond to the number.

Wellll.... I thought I was done with our letter L unit, but I forgot we hadn't taken time to make the fresh squeezed lemonade. So, we took the time to make some before lunch today. I found a recipe for "Perfect Lemonade" here. Her secret is to heat sugar with an equal amount of water to dissolve the sugar so you don't end up with sugar down the bottom of your pitcher.

The girls took turns helping juice the lemons and stir.

I took a video of them drinking it, so I could record any interesting reactions. They both liked it and drank it down. Unfortunately, I can't as it will bother my stomach, so I had a little swallow and yes, it was really good.

Ladybug Lapbook

Because of doctor/dentist appointments it had taken us 3 weeks to do our L unit. We finally finished our ladybug lapbooks a couple of days ago!!

This is the first complete lapbook we have ever done. We started a monkey lapbook quite a while ago, before we took off for the summer, but I am not sure where it is or how to complete it. As we are on M now, perhaps it would be a good time to finish it. But with Christmas projects it may not happen.

Anyhow, as usual, some ideas are my own and of course I got some good ideas from other websites, some which were linked to on other blogs. Seems a ladybug lapbook is a popular idea. So, it wasn't original, but we had fun and we also enjoyed several ladybug books from the library. One of the books my daughters enjoyed was "Lara Ladybug" by Christine Florie. We also read "The Grouchy Ladybug" by Eric Carle, "Lucky Ladybugs" by Gladys Plemon Conklin and "Ten Little Ladybugs" by Melanie Gerth.

We made thumb print ladybugs on the outside. Our Itsy Bitsy letter L book was found through a link at preschool2prek.blogspot.com. The website is kidzone.ws. The Parts of a Ladybug matchbook was also linked at the preschool2prek blog. It comes from Homeschool Share.

I loved the idea of doing a life-cycle wheel for the ladybug. I decided to look for a life-cycle picture. I found one I liked at everything-ladybug.com. I printed it out and used a bowl to cut out around it. Then I cut the same size circle out of red construction paper and cut out the wedge window. The girls glued on dots and the head and drew a line down the middle. After I attached the paper fastener Tabitha loved turning the wheel and learning about the different stages. She is quite intrigued by the pupa stage and she loves to tell us that the ladybug comes out yellow (something new mommy learned). And she spins the ladybug telling us all about the mommy and daddy ladybug coming together and the mommy laying eggs, then the baby comes out. Larva is the one stage she can't seem to remember the name for.

Then taking a different path than any other ladybug lapbook I had seen, I printed out a human lifecycle picture and we glued pictures of our family in the correct stage. As I am pregnant we got to put a picture of the baby near the fetus stage. Then I used the girls' own baby picture and recent picture. I used big brother and sister for adolescents and mommy and daddy for adults. And of course grandma for old age (she might not find that amusing, but she is the closest we have).

And last but not least after counting ladybugs in the "Ten Little Ladybugs" book I decided it would be fun to do something with counting ladybugs in the lapbook. I printed out some ladybugs from Homeschool Share, though I couldn't understand what the instructions said to do with them. I decided to cut out blades of grass and do some one to one counting as we have done in the past. I put the number on the top of the grass blade and then the corresponding quantity of ladybugs was glued on. Unfortunately I couldn't find my white glue and had to use glue sticks. I like the liquid glue for these activities so they can clearly see the amount of glue dots that correspond to the number.

And that is finally the end of our L lesson and our ladybug lapbook. Now we are focusing on the letter M and Christmas.