Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home

We spent most of the month of May immersed in "Ladybug Land," learning all there is to know about ladybugs (as all of the students will tell you: "Mrs. Johnson's favorites!") We studied the life cycle of these little creatures by "growing" our very own ladybugs. I sent away for live ladybug larvae from a company called Insect Lore, and our new pets arrived in early May. Over the next few weeks, we carefully observed the larvae as they grew and changed from larva to pupa to adult ladybug. We also spent a lot of time reading some great literature about ladybugs and playing ladybug games and singing ladybug songs. Finally, it was time to release the ladybugs into our school gardens, where we hope that the ladybugs will help protect our new plants from pesky aphids, which happen to be ladybugs' favorite foods. To celebrate the end of our unit, we enjoyed some food of our own: yummy ladybug cupcakes!

Here are a few photos from our ladybug unit:We examine the ladybugs in their house before releasing them.

The ladybugs landed on our hands and fingers before finding their new homes!

Yum! Ladybug cupcakes, complete with red wings and black spots!

As a part of our ladybug unit and our problem solving unit in math, students wrote and illustrated "Ladybug Picture Problems." Please click on the link to enjoy this photo story of their work!

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwTa0ql-ggedMDlhMzJlOWYtY2ZhZS00ODhjLWE1MTMtMTJkMWE5NWQ3MGQx&hl=en_US&authkey=CNvt76wH