The Grouchy Lady Bug

After reading the Grouchy Lady Bug, we wanted to delve into the study of insects even deeper. We watched the life cycle of a ladybug in this informative video clip. The students became entomologists (and were quite proud of using their impressive new vocabulary), and presented their findings to the class. I gave them no guidelines or restrictions, but simply told them to "take notes" on what they learned from the video. I was dazzled by their studious approach and their eager intentions. They were so enthralled by this process that they told me when they wanted me to "pause" the clip, so they could write down more accurate notes. Sometimes you just have to step back, and let them learn in their own way.

His focus was unbreakable!

Intently documenting his findings.

Look at this report!!!! (ALL ON HER OWN!)

I love how she organized her thoughts.

Entomologist Arabella reporting her findings.

We created our own "Grouchy Ladybug" book. We are learning to tell time to the hour and to the half hour. The students were able to re-create characters from the book and give their own reason why the animal could not fight.

She wrote about a Boa Constrictor being too "big and dangerous". I just LOVE her phonetic Kindergarten writing.

How cute is this whale?

Thank you to our fabulous aide, Mrs. McLean for  making the cover of our book.

 

After reading the Grouchy Ladybug MANY times, we did a "CLOSE" lesson on the story. As usual, I was amazed at the questions the students asked which prompted us to re-read and investigate the answer. The students got into a "friendly" debate about whether the Grouchy ladybug and Friendly ladybug were males or females. We looked back into the text to find out if the author provided evidence of the gender of the ladybugs. After further research, we discovered that Mr. Eric Carle did NOT provide a gender. Hmmmm I wonder why? The students were so intrigued, that they suggested that we write a letter to the author to ask why he did not use the words "he", or "she" to describe his characters. More on that later. Stay tuned!

Next, we wanted to use the text to provide evidence about why the Grouchy Ladybug was in fact "grouchy" and why the Friendly Ladybug was indeed "friendly". We re-read the text again. Every time the students heard evidence to support these characteristics, we wrote it on the board.

Finally, we wrapped up the activity by doing a "Project Act" activity called "Tug-O-War". First, I had to demonstrate to the students what a "tug-O-war" was. After all of the safety guidelines were ironed out, I had half of the class stand on one side to be the "Grouchy Ladybug", and the other half stand on the other side of the line to be the "Friendly Ladybug". The students got in their "tugging stance" and took turns "tugging" and shouting out something their character would say to "win over the aphids". Who do you think won?