Ladybug, Ladybug

Today was ladybug day at the library.  We Read Ladybug, Ladybug by Ruth Brown and Little Red Riding Hood from Lucy Cousins collection Yummy!  Then we had a ladybug song with ladybugs for the flannelboard. Sing this to the tune of Hush Little Baby.

Ladybug one, let's have some fun
Ladybug two, I like you
Ladybug three, Do you like me?
Ladybug four, do you have anymore?
Ladybug five, do the ladybug jive,
Ladybug six, you can walk on sticks,
Ladybug seven, fly up to heaven,
Ladybug eight, now don't be late,
Ladybug nine, I think you're fine,
Ladybug ten, Let's do it again!

You might be able to come up with better rhymes than I did. Feel free to change the words anyway that works for you.

I handed out the ten ladybugs and each child brought up the corresponding ladybug when I sang that line of the song. Of course, as the numbers got higher they needed some help figuring out how many spots the ladybug had. Since I had more than 20 kids today, we did the song twice so that everyone could get a chance to put a ladybug on the board.

The bugs are made of black and red felt. The red wings are glued on to the black base. The spots were made with a permanent black marker.

For a craft we made---you guessed it---ladybugs. The kids glued red wings and a black head on a white card, and then stuck on black spots. The black spots were actually white dots that are left over from circular labels that are printed to put on CDs and DVDs in the library. I've been saving these sheets of white dots (about 1 inch in diameter) for a long time,and I finally found a use for them! I had a teen volunteer color the dots black with a permanent marker.

I gave the children and parents the option of making more than one ladybug card if they wanted to make counting cards with a one-spot ladybug, a two-spot ladybug and so on. A few made two bugs with multiple spots, but no one took me up on the idea of a set of counting cards.