Ladybugs!

The girls convinced me to buy a pack of ladybugs to release into the garden to control aphids and other pests.  It quickly became the inspiration I needed to start getting excited about school, both "pre"school now and "real" school next year for Elsa.  The girls were so excited and curious about the little beetles that it was super easy to turn it into a full unit study and and extended science project.

 

We colored ladybugs, made a ladybug counting activity, read ladybug books,

cut and pasted the ladybug life cycle, watched you-tube videos of ladybugs laying eggs,  

 

crafted our own ladybug and aphid from Easter eggs, pipe cleaners, tissue paper, and mod podge,

 

 

 watched the ladybugs eat aphids in the garden,

 watched ladybugs live in a canning jar on our dining table,

 

 

found ladybug eggs in our canning jar on our table (!!!!!),

 

saw the eggs hatch into tiny ladybug lavae and put them into their own canning jar,

 

 

 found older ladybug larvae on the rose bushes (and captured them so we could watch them pupate in their own canning jar- yes we had three jars of ladybugs in various staged of their lifecycle on our dinner table, it was so exciting!!!  The girls and I had so much fun checking on them every morning to see how they had changed and grown.),

 

found ladybug pupa and brand new ladybugs on our garden fence (they are yellow when they first come out),

 

 and, of course, took plenty of pictures of the girls in our garden where the ladybugs were doing such a good job controlling the aphids that I can hardly find any now to feed the bugs in our jars! 

 

 

This is when the ladybug flew away; I thought her reaction was pretty funny.  She immediately started looking for another one.

I HIGHLY doubt that all future school projects will be this easy and exciting, so I am just very thankful that for now these little beetles have provided so much material for the girls and I to work with for the last two weeks. 

Good job, ladybugs.