Spring is finally here! And it’s a great time of year to read one of our favorite children’s books: The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. As we read the story, we talked a bit about how ladybugs are beautifully designed with colorful spots and lines.
And that’s when I decided to share a few printable activities for The Grouchy Ladybug that help kids learn to work with numbers and fractions!
Ladybugs are so perfectly divided into quarters that they make wonderful math counting frames and fraction templates. And that’s what you’ll see in these printable ladybug math activities!
Read on to see how to get this set for free! And for more fun with ladybugs, don’t miss our easy coffee filter ladybug craft!
Reading The Grouchy Ladybug with Kids
Our kids love reading The Grouchy Ladybug. They always laugh at how cantankerous the ladybug is at the beginning.
He’s just mean and stubborn and unnecessarily contentious.
But after an encounter with a much, much, much larger animal (a whale), he is sufficiently chastened to show a little gratitude to his fellow ladybug.
Printable Math Activities for The Grouchy Ladybug
To do these printable activities for The Grouchy Ladybug, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)
To take the ladybug theme a bit farther, we created a couple of hands-on math activities for kids.
In one of the math activities, we had the boys color ladybug fraction templates.
They took turns creating basic fractions on their ladybugs.
They could show 1/4.
Or they could show 3/4.
Or they could work with the halves and show 1/2. You can also have kids use all of the pieces to discuss what the word “whole” means in mathematics and that fractions are simply “part” of a whole piece.
Then we started working with our ladybug “spots”.
After laminating the pages and cutting them out, we used spots on either side of the ladybug to practice counting, basic addition, and subtraction with the ladybug spots.
As they added up the number of spots on each side, they learned a few ways to add and reach 10. Plus, there are a few extra spots in case of any whoopsies while cutting.
Don’t miss these other great posts!
And for more bug-themed fun, try these ideas!
Get plenty of inspiration for teaching preschoolers in your homeschool on my Learning for Little Ones Pinterest board!
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This post is part of the “A Book and a Big Idea: Spring” linkup at iHomeschool Network! Stop by and see how our fellow bloggers are learning about spring with their families this year!
