Filed Under: Education, Kids Activities //
If you know me, you know how important Interest-Based Learning is in this household. When my daughter told me she wanted to learn about ladybugs, I immediately thought of incorporating that into a counting lesson.
We started the lesson by reading Ten Little Ladybugs, by Melanie Gerth. The picture book begins with 10 little ladybugs. As the story goes on, another animal comes along and takes one of the lady bugs. It’s a fun story that combines rhyming sounds with counting down concepts.
After practicing our counting through the read aloud, we created ladybug stamps from potatoes! Super simple and fun. For this activity, you will need:
1 Potato (& a knife)
Paper Towels
2 Different Colors of Paint (we used traditional red and black)
1 Q-Tip
Paper (we used cardstock for a sturdier base)
Step 1: Cut & Dry the Potato
You will need to cut the potato in half to form a circle at the bottom. Pat the bottom of the potato dry using your paper towel.
Step 2: Form the Body
Once the bottom of the potato is dried off, stamp it into your base color. We found that it was better to use a minimal amount of paint on the stamp. You could also use a paint brush to paint the base color onto the potato. Place it gently on the paper to form a ladybug body. Do this as many times as you can fit on your paper! Once you have all of your bodies, set the paper aside and let it dry.
Once your bodies are dry, the counting comes in! Use a Q-Tip to create a separation on the wings and a head for your ladybug. As you add dots to the ladybug, count them aloud with your child. After a couple examples, I had my daughter dot them and count them as she went.
There you have it! A beautiful ladybug stamp and an interactive counting lesson. You can watch the step by step process here!