My children all enjoy playing together with Mother Goose Time’s thematic play based preschool curriculum.
This month we have been learning about “Bugs and Crawly Things.”
The first day of the program was dedicated to Ladybugs; one of our favorites.
Reading “The Grouchy Ladybug” by Eric Carle set the stage perfectly for searching out real ladybugs and discussing their natural history.
It’s also a fun book for introducing telling time.
As we started reading more about ladybugs we discovered some more fun trivia!
Did you know in other parts of the world they are called ladybirds not bugs?
Did you also know that this might just be how Ladybird Johnson (previous first lady) got her nickname?
Name Dots
On the first day of each new theme there is an opportunity for kids to complete name tags.
This is a fantastic chance for my home schoolers to practice writing or recognizing their name.
We use the completed name tags for decoration during the month.
I also save them. When one of my munchkins is feeling particularly frustrated at not being able to make a letter she wants to print, I pull them back out again and show her how far she has already come.
This month on the back of the name tags we used dot dot makers to indicate our age.
We also created a name tag for Mommy. They enjoyed getting to go crazy with the dot dots and I enjoyed them trying to figure out the math to reach 39 dots!
Ladybug Headband
Each child had supplies to create their own Ladybug headband.
While we created the headbands we chatted about how important ladybugs are because they eat aphids, scale insects, and other garden pests.
My four year old was determined to complete the activity all by herself.
My 18 month old was thrilled to be able to put the black dot stickers on his headband.
My three year old went INSANE with the glue!
My daughter lost control of the stapler and my son figured out that glue everywhere wasn’t exactly ideal!
No worries!
We used some of the extra paper to complete a new backing for my daughter’s headband and wiped off my son’s extreme level of excess glue with a baby wipe and moved on with life!
This little guy was incredibly pleased with his final creation – glue smear and all!
We also wore our Ladybug headbands on a hunt for these really cool bug counters that Mother Goose Time sent. They are in really bright, eye catching colors and the kids really enjoy using them for scavenger hunts and color sorting!
Counting Spots
Ladybugs have spots that help identify their species or family.
Some have no spots at all.
Some are black with red spots.
In this simple counting game, my kids took a turn spinning a number and placing that number of bingo chips onto the Ladybug game board.
We kept taking turns until the Ladybug had 19 spots.
Then, we played again. And again. And, well you get the picture.
As always we enjoyed Mother Goose Time’s included music and suggested rhyme.
The rhyme for today is adorable and the kids are still saying it on the swing set.
Try it yourself with your kids:
1 Spot, 2 Spots
1 spot, 2 spots, 3 spots, 4
5 spots, 6 spots, 7, 8, and more!
Simple, but effective!
Happy learning!
