Ladybug Freebie Frenzy!

Our soon-to-be four year old daughter is very frightened of bugs.  Mostly, she will run for her life if there is anything with wings buzzing around her.  It often makes her not want to stay outside and enjoy the outdoor activities she is engaged in.  So, I decided I would try to desensitize her to bugs.  First, I had to see exactly how fearful she was under various circumstances.  I discovered that if the bug is on the other side of the window she is fine and will look at it and study it with some level of curiosity.   When we are outside, she is also fine with ants (worms too) and caterpillars.  So basically, I have it narrowed down to bugs buzzing around her - big or small.  My first attempt at helping her get over her fear is ladybugs.  We have been learning about life cycles, so this is the perfect time to introduce them.  We took out several great books from the library.  One of my favorite non-fiction books so far is Starting Life: Ladybug by Claire Lleewellyn.  


I purchased the Lady Bug Land by Insect Lore and it is so awesome!  It has a magnifier at the top of the dome so you can observe the ladybugs closely.  It is also pretty neat looking:) Next, I had to find some live ladybugs!  Now, the Lady Bug Land comes with a certificate to order lady bugs and watch it through the life cycle, but I was more concerned with having our daughter exposed to the bugs as opposed to watching the life cycle.  So I chose to order ladybugs.  I was surprised that I could not find any locally; I ended up having to order them online through Hayneedle!  I didn't think they would be alive since they shipped from California and took four days to get here.  However, they arrived today and they were alive!  There are about 1500 in the tub.  

We put a handful in our Lady Bug Land and left the rest in the tub and put them in the refrigerator.  I had no idea you could do that, but that is what the instructions said to do.  Our daughter was so excited!  It was awesome to see that look of fascination that is priceless on a child!

Naturally, I have a ton of ladybug themed activities for us to work on :)  The best part is they were all FREE!  So, here is a glimpse at what we did and a list of fabulous freebies I have found.  First, we played a cute little math game using this great math mat freebie from Jennifer Hier.  I made the spots using black foam and a craft punch, but Jennifer provides spots in her freebie :)  I also used a dice popper that we had from Burger King a while back.  It has 1,2,3 and -1, -2, and -3.  We each got ten spots and each had a wing/side.  The first person to get rid of all of their spots won :)

Next, we colored this adorable little non-fiction reader by Michelle Griffo at Apples and ABCs.  It also comes with a color, gut and paste sequencing activity!

If your kiddos are working on matching upper and lower case letters there is a great freebie from Book Fairies and Garden Gnomes.

Another great freebie for preschoolers is Ladybug Counting by Stacey Jones from A Moment in Our World.  

Preschoolers are sure to love this Five Little Ladybugs song by Rita Galloway!  Just click the picture to download :)

TouchMath is a popular multisensory mathematics program that uses specific points on numerals to assist students.  This adorable ladybug themed touch point math cards are a great tool for preschoolers who are growing in their understanding of 1:1 correspondence and numeracy.  This freebie is by TpT seller Krystie Bithell.  Click on the picture to grab your own :)

Another book we took out from the library had a ladybug theme, but the focus was on prepositional phrases.  The book is titled Look for Ladybugs by Dana Meachen Rau:

Jessica Finch's Where is Little Frog? is a great alternative or supplement to the book.  It is a story about a ladybug looking for Little Frog.  Click on the picture for this freebie!

Hope you found something you can use!  Thank you for stopping by!

C is for...

Crafts!  With our daughter off from school this week I have had the pleasure and challenge of keeping her entertained while trying to keep things educational.  I am so proud of all the things she is learning in school and beginning sounds are really starting to click for her.  I have been focusing on the letters that have a capital letter and lower case letter that are nearly identical.  This week we have been working on Cc.  We started out with some jewel counting use this great FREEBIE from Edlah Preschool Resources.  We talked about how the word CROWN starts with the /c/ sound as does the word COUNT.  Then she picked out the number of jewels needed for each crown and glued them on.

Next, we went on a letter C scavenger hunt in her playroom!  She came up with some great ones.

We have carrot, cake, cupcake, crayon, cup, camel, cow, caterpillar, car, cucumber (Larry!), cookie, croissant, cat, camera, and Cookie Monster ~ of course!

Tomorrow we are going to SHOP for the C items using alphabet money that I purchased from The Moffatt Girls.  This will be great because I can incorporate literacy AND math.  I will put price stickers on each item and she will have to pay for her items using her letter C money.  

Please share if you have some favorite initial sound activities!