Ladybug Unit Activities and Artworks For Preschooler

Last year, when Audrey just turned three years old, I shared a blog about Ladybug with a few activities appropriate for her age. She had learned the very basic from that post like the parts of the ladybug, the /l/ sound with the use of sandpaper letter and learning to form the “ladybug” word using the moveable alphabet. She’s been reading words and a few sentences that time so it’s not really a big challenge for me to create activities to present with the use of moveable letters and anything that requires few readings.

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Currently, she’s in her “sensitive period for writing, tracing, cutting and painting” or anything that tests the ability of her hands to hold and control tools. By supporting the need for this type of development, I added more activities for her Ladybug theme shelf that uses art and creativity materials such as paints, paintbrushes, crayons, scissors, and markers. This type of material satisfies her needs to actively use her hands and of course to be creative! Yes, she’s been into arts lately, actually my paints and rolled art papers are running out so its time to grab again some more of this!

TIP: As your child progresses in a specific level of activity that requires the use of her fine motor or small hand muscles, try to add more challenging activity and present it to your child the fun way. While I’m presenting an artwork like stroking a paintbrush for a wooden ladybug painting, I will sing her favorite ladybug song as a warm-up. You can find the song here. Once she’s started the process of painting she will eventually focus on her work and not on my voice.

Let’s get to the point, here’s the list of the activities we have for our Ladybug Theme Unit this year.

Ladybug Puzzle– This has been our start-up activity when we study about the ladybug. This can be paired with the parts of the ladybug label matching. I just search this on google and made a printout.

Ladybug Life Cycle– Life cycles were a hit activity for my little learner. WHY? Young children love miniature objects so much! Just like the tiniest pink tower cube in my classroom that always disappears so I need to order again that smallest piece. She loves matching the miniature objects into the ladybug life cycle cards. The three-part life cycle cards are from Montessori Printshop, Life cycle mat card from Thelaminatrix and nomenclature cards from Natural Beach Living. The first photo below shows the three-part card with the corresponding ladybug growth stages. Audrey place the cards first then she matches it with the object placing it on top of each card OR below. You can also present the life cycle of the ladybug like it was shown on the second photo below, by individually putting the growth stage. That presentation is a combination of three-part cards, nomenclature cards, and pictures to object cards. You can either use just one card or all of them. I am using all to give my little learner more visual learning experience for her age. Just like me, she’s a visual learner. 

Parts of a Ladybug- This is a simple ladybug parts matching sheet. Your child can either cut and paste this into the blank label or you can cut the labels and let your child match it with the corresponding parts. This activity card is from Natural Beach Living printable.

Letter Match-Up– I printed this cute activity to match with the moveable alphabet.  First, I will say the sound of each lower case letters to the child then I will ask her, “can you get the /l/ without saying the name of the letter. The child will then match all the lower case moveable alphabets according to the photo below. 

Wooden Ladybug Coloring– She’s using unfinished wooden ladybug cutouts and black and red fine markers. I first trace the edges with a black marker and let her do the coloring.

Ladybug Cutting Work– One of her favorite activity since she learnt to hold the scissor is “cutting”. I printed out more cutting exercises like this or you can create your own by drawing the different form of lines in a piece of paper such as straight line, wavy line, zigzag and combinations. The more that she practices this activity regularly, the more she will get better into refining this skill.  She’s using a child-safe scissor perfectly suited for her tiny hands. You can read more about the fine motor article on my blog.

Ladybug Stamp Art– I have a variety of insects stamp activity at home, by far this is what she’s been using a lot. You can create stamp art activities in different ways by writing letter /l/ (for ladybug) on a piece of paper (letter size or oversize can do) then the child will trace the line by stamping.

Ladybug Coloring– Her thing lately is coloring. Normally, this is her activity in the afternoon after lunch or after her naps, she will ask something to color. So to make things ran smoothly in the afternoon, I keep handy of several printed coloring pages according to our theme or unit study. You can always find several free ladybug printable online here.

Wooden Ladybug Painting– This one is her first time super detail work. If you been following me on Instagram, my stories will tell you how detail she truly work on each artwork. The effort and extra detail  she exerted on this is an example of a “child’s work”.

“Man builds himself through working, working with his hands, but using his hands as the instruments of his ego, the organ of his individual mind and will, which shapes its own existence face to face with its environment. The child’s instinct confirms the fact that work is an inherent tendency in human nature; it is the characteristic instinct of the human race.”