L Week- Ladybug

I learned a little bit about myself as a teacher from this one. My kids love ladybugs, I don't know why, they just do and it happens to start with L so we did ladybugs today. My boss also did ladybugs with her class, of 4 and 5 year olds. I realized hers looked a lot nicer than mine did but here's where I learned about myself. On top of the fact that her class is 4 and 5 year olds and mine is 2 year olds (you know the developmental difference if you've ever even been around kids), I realized that I focus less on the finished product coming out nicely, and more on the kids getting to do as much of the creative work as they can handle. I couldn't care less if their lady bugs looked nice, but that they were the ones to color it and put the dots on it. Their parent's will get the idea.

What you'll need:

• Paper plates
• Black paint
• Black construction paper
• White and red crayons
• Eyes
• Glue
• Scissors
• Stapler
• Pipe cleaners
• Something to clean hands

What to do:

1. Have the children color the paper plate red. You can use small paper plates, I had leftover plate middles cut out from yesterday's craft.
2. Put some black paint on a paper plate and have the children dip one finger in the paint and make ladybug spots on the paper plate.
3. Let it dry, then cut the paper plate in half.
4. Overlap the halves leaving an upside down V-shaped opening and staple the paper plate halves at the top.
5. Cut out small circles of black construction paper to make the ladybug's head.
6. Glue eyes to the head and use the white crayon to create a smile.
7. Cut a pipe cleaner into small pieces and curl them to look like antennae, then glue them on the back of the head.
8. After all of that dries, glue the head over top of the staple.

The finished product: