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!
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!
We are raising our own ladybugs so this is really helpful! Thanks!
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