Reading Aloud Activity

Posted on Nov 27, 2014 | Resources

The Grouchy Ladybug

Suggested Age: 4-6 Years Old

Submitted by Joyce Garrigus, Retired Librarian, Hawaiian Mission Academy

Book:The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
grouchy-ladybug

The story is about an arrogant ladybug, who challenges another ladybug to a fight over some aphids but then decides he isn’t large enough to be worth fighting. He then travels around the world and encounters a series of increasingly larger animals, challenging each to a fight but then declining and looking for a larger animal. Eventually, he encounters a blue whale, who slaps him with his tail and sends him flying back to where he started. He then decides to be nice and share the aphids with the fellow ladybug. The book is unusual in that the size of the page is not the same throughout the book, but increases with the animal size. Also, the blue whale’s tail takes up a page in itself and turning it is meant to represent the slapping motion. The time of day is also shown at the side of each page.

 

Activity: A Ladybug

Materials:

  • Red construction paper
  • Black felt-tipped pen
  • Scotch tape
  • Pencil
  • Scissors

Templates:

Instructions:

  1. Fold a piece of red construction paper in half.
  2. Use a pencil to draw the outline of half the ladybug on the red construction paper.
    grouchy-ladybug-01
  3. Cut the folded paper along the outline.
    grouchy-ladybug-02
  4. Unfold the ladybug. Use a black felt-tipped pen to draw the laybug’s dots and other markings.
    grouchy-ladybug-03
  5. Cut out the ladybug’s antennae, color them black, and tape them to the ladybug’s head.
    grouchy-ladybug-04