Lovable Ladybugs - Math Games!

Hi, Teaching Friends!

I'm so happy to be joining you here at Teaching Blog Roundup! I'm a retired teacher from New Jersey who was physically ready to leave the classroom (tired body!! bad back, etc.), but really not mentally or emotionally ready to leave the field of education. So now I get to spend my days having a wonderful time with our grandchildren, tinkering in the garden, volunteering, having more time for crafts, and enjoying my husband's recent retirement with him - let me assure you that there's nothing boring abut retirement around here! I'm also having great fun creating classroom resources through my blog at Primary Inspiration and my teaching resource stores at Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook. I love providing teachers and their students with lots of fun activities for learning... and lots of freebies, too!

I know that many of you are getting ready to "round up" your school year, so here are a few goodies that I hope will fill your days with sunshine!

What is it about ladybugs that makes them so different from most other bugs? Even the child who's wary (or downright petrified!) of other insects finds them to be interesting, approachable, and even cute!

I love using ladybugs as an entry point for teaching about insects! Here are a few of the non-fiction read-alouds I've used:


Ladybugs: Red, Fiery, and Bright, by Mia Posada. With its rhyming text, this is  a good read-aloud, but also useful as an early reader for more advanced primary students. A nice collection of fact pages follow the actual text.

The Life Cycle of a Ladybug, by Colleen Sexton. Terrific close-up photos of all stages of the life cycle.

A Ladybug's Life, by John Himmelman. Although not as full of facts, this one is a great way to introduce or review the use of a glossary.(CCCS 1.RIT.5)

Stepping out from non-fiction, don't forget about Eric Carle's The Grouchy Ladybug, which of course is a great math book, too!

Speaking of math and ladybugs, here's a freebie I think you and your kiddos will enjoy! Ladybug Lane is a set of two Common Core math games. The first is Ladybug Scramble,  a 120 chart game for adding and subtracting multiples of ten. Also in the packet is Ladybug War, which will give your students practice with addition strategies for sums within 20, as well as comparing numbers.

Click on the image to download your copy!

Thanks so much for stopping by at Teaching Blog Roundup! See you again soon!

Happy Teaching!