Ladybug Theme

Ladybug, ladybug, ladybugs everywhere! We all know this cute insect as a ladybug. It is called a ladybug, a lady beetle, or ladybird (in Britain). If you have plants or weeds, the you have one happy bug. They are hunting for bugs to eat. Having these fun ladybugs around is excellent for the environment, your health, and the health of the ones around you. If you let nature take over then there will not be all the bad pesticides that harms everything. Save your environment (and yourself and others) by having ladybugs in your garden.


Here are some photos I took.

Ladybug on a Little John Bottlebrush 

March 31, 2020 

March 15, 2011 

Ladybugs on a Brittlebush

Ladybugs | National Geographic
Ladybugs | National Geographic Kids

ARTS AND CRAFTS

Ladybug Rock Craft
Wash a smooth rock.
Let dry.
Paint the rock red.
Let dry.
Paint a face on it.
Paint black spots on its back.
Let dry.


3D Paper Ladybug Craft With Template | Easy Peasy and Fun

SNACKS

Healthy Ladybug Bread
Take a biscuit or flat roll and spread strawberry cream cheese on it. (Daiya Cheese has a dairy-free version).
Place raisins on the cream cheese to make a head and spots on its back.
Enjoy!

Videos
Wing folding/unfolding in Ladybugs | YouTube


Note: Other resources coming soon. 

Weaving Crafts

Here are some links to weaving crafts.

Paper Plate Weaving How To | Red Ted Art
Paper Plate Weaving | Make a Doll Hammock |Tinker Lab
Rainbow Paper Plate Weaving Project | Pink Stripey Socks
Weaving | Natural Suburbia
Weaving Cute Baby Turtles Using God's Eye Weaving Pattern | Pink Stripey Socks
Weaving With Kids | Art Bar Blog

Fall Theme

FALL POEMS
It is the summer's great last heat,
It is the fall's first chill: They meet.
– Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt

BOOK ACTIVITY
Fall Leaves Fall! Book Activities
1.  Read Fall Leaves Fall! by Zoe Hall.
2.  Go outside.  Talk about the different kinds of leaves (what they look like, sizes, colors, photosynthesis, chlorophyll, etc.).
3.  Stomp on the leaves.
4.  Sing The Leaves on The Trees.
5.  Try to catch the falling leaves.
6.  Make a big pile of leaves and jump on them.
7.  Collect some leaves. Go back inside. 
8.  Art & Crafts

Do leaf rubbings.  Do it in different colors like red, yellow, orange, brown, and green.  Cut them out to have for the song and the words of the song for each child.

Fall Picture
Collect leaves, twigs, rocks, pine needles, etc. Glue them onto a piece of paper.  Make animals, people, or other objects.  Draw or paint arms onto them.

9.  HOME ECONOMICS/BAKING
Leaf Cookies: Bake leaf cookies.  Frost and  then decorate them using sprinkles, etc.

Leaf Biscuits: Bake leaf biscuits.  Serve with jams, preserves, or jellies that are the same color as fall leaves (or use any flavor).

MUSIC

The Leaves on The Tree
Sung to: "The Wheels on The Bus"
Copyright © 2000, 2004 Barbara Pratt.  All rights reserved.

The leaves on the tree are falling down,
falling down, falling down.
The leaves on the tree are falling down,
Red, yellow, orange, and brown.

Note: Drop leaves from above your head as the color is mentioned in the song.

The leaves on the ground go crunch, crunch, crunch,
crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.
The leaves on the ground go crunch, crunch, crunch.
All through the fall.

Note: Have the child/children pretend they are crunching leaves on the ground while singing this verse.

Other Music / Songs
Autumn Day #247: Children's Songbook

ARTS AND CRAFTS
Leaf Painting
Using a paint brush, brush paint onto various leaves (vein side up).  Place the paint side down of the leaf onto the paper.  Place a piece of wax paper over the leaves.  Roll a rolling pin or bottle across the leaves.  Remove wax paper and leaves.

Leaf Rubbing
Place your leaf (vein side up) under your piece of paper (tape it on for younger children) and take a crayon and rub your leaf. Do it in different colors like red, yellow, orange, brown, and green.

Leaf Art
Cut a leaf pattern (using the links on this page) out of thick paper or glue on a piece of cardboard. Design your leaf pattern by gluing cold cereal, noodles (colored or plain), oatmeal, or rice on it.

Feather Art
Take a small colored paper plate (or white if you like). Glue a lot of feathers on the plate. Make a hole using a hole puncher. In order to hang it, place a piece of yarn and tie it in a knot or a small piece of pipe cleaner and twist it together. Let the glue dry.

Crumbled Leaf Art
Collect some leaves. Let dry.  Brush some glue on paper and sprinkle the dried leaves on.

Fall Collage
Go on a walk. Collect leaves, flowers, twigs, etc.  Brush some glue on paper.  Place the items you collected onto the paper.  Let dry.

Fall Picture
Collect leaves, twigs, rocks, pine needles, etc. Glue them onto a piece of paper.  Make animals, people, or other objects.  Draw or paint arms onto them.

MATH
Leaf Math
Cut the number of a leaf pattern you would like.  For example, I cut 12 red maple leaves from Kids Domain (listed on this page).  Laminate.  Write various addition or subtraction problems on index cards. For example, 1+1= 1+2=,... Have the child use this as manipulatives to figure out the answer to the problems on the cards.  Make an activity sheet with the problems you have on the index cards. Have them write the answers by the problem.  You can have older children write the problems you have on the index cards onto a piece of paper and write the answer by each problem.

Acorn Math
Follow the above directions except use the acorn patterns located at TeachNow.com for this activity.

I have some acorn math for sale at TeachersPayTeachers. Go to the below link to view them.
Acorn eBooks @ TPT Desert Blossom Learning

Acorn
Acorn Alphabet Game
Using a frozen 12 or 16 ounce juice container, place construction paper around it.  Tape the seam closed with clear plastic tape and the top with clear mailing tape.  You will need to have one for each container.  Make 26 acorns.  Print one page and then cut out 26 onto brown construction paper.  Write the lower case alphabet on one side and the upper case alphabet on the other side.  Laminate or place clear contact paper on them.  Have the child hunt for acorns scattered over the floor, put them in order, and say the alphabet.

Acorn Alphabet File Folder Game or Table Game
You can make separate acorns too.  Use 52 pattern acorns.  Write the lower case alphabet on 26 of them and then the uppercase alphabet on 26 more.  Follow the above directions.  Place one set in a file folder (or on a table or the floor).  Match the correct letter with other matching letter.

Leaf Links
Information
Autumn Leaf Scrapbook Leaf Identification in Missouri
Autumn Leaves - Why do leaves change color in Fall? @ Science Made Simple Including word scrambles.
Why Leaves Change Color?

Activities
Make leaf rubbings.

Leaf Printables and Activity Sheets
D-lite Collections @ Bry-Back Manor Different leaf activity sheets.  

One includes: How Many Leaves (counting and writing numbers).

Squirrel Theme
AFUNK: Squirrel Coloring Book
Bry-Back Manor: Help the Squirrels - Match the squirrels with the correct number of nuts (acorns)
KidsRCrafty: Squirrel Dot-to-dot (a-m)

Autumn and Fall Links
Autumn Celebration at The Holiday Zone
Arts and Crafts, Coloring Pages, Games, Language Activities, Poetry, Songs and Action Rhymes, and Recommended Books and Links
Bry-Back Manor: Fall Tic Tac Toe Game Acorns and Leaves.
CrayolaActivityBook: Nature Walk, Fall Coloring Pages
Free Printable Math Worksheets: Autumn Themed @ KidZone Grades 1-5 (These can be used for other grades too; depending on the child.)

Bee Thematic Unit

Happy Bee Day! Bee Day is on May 20th.
🐝    🐝    🐝    🐝    🐝    🐝    🐝    🐝

This beehive is located at the Pacific Science Center in the State of Washington.

Here are some ideas you can use for a bee unit (or just to have fun).
I will add more to this page.

Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes
from England

A Swarm of Bee in May
A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon.;
A swarm of bees in July
Is not worth a fly.

A Swarm of Bees in May | Mama Lisa's World
Including the nursery rhyme being read.
Bees | Enchanted Learning
Bees – Nursery Rhymes | Mother Goose Club
Including a video of it being said by a boy.

Fiddle Dee Dee | Enchanted Learning
Fiddle-de-dee, Fiddle-de-dee, The Fly Has Married the Bumble Bee
Including the nursery rhyme being read.
Fiddle-De-Dee – Nursery Rhymes | Mother Goose Club
Including a video of it being song by children.

Bee Music
Play The Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Have the children walk around and pretend they are flying like bumblebees.
You can have then hold a picture of a bumblebee they have colored or they can put their arms out as if they are wings.

Music Links
Flight of the Bumblebee by The US Army Band | Internet ArchieveThe Flight of the Bumblebee | Virtual Sheet Music

Bee Arts and Crafts
50 Bug Crafts for Kids - A viewer sent me this link in October 2016.
Bumblebee Toilet Paper Roll Craft | DLTK

Bee Snacks
Make Rice Krispie Treats

Rice Krispie Treats
You can find a recipe with or without using marshmallows. There are some links listed below. Just add honey to the treats if it does not include it in the recipe. If you are vegan you can use the golden syrup, agave nectar, or some other syrup substitute. The brown sugar can be replaced by coconut sugar.

Healthy No Marshmallow Rice Krispie Treats
Healthy Rice Krispie Treats

Bug Snacks: Honey Cookies | PreschoolEducation

Bee & Honey Facts and Recipes
Africanized Honey Bees on the Move Lesson Plans
Honey.com - Including "About Honey", "Recipes", and more.

Resources
Africanized Honey Bees on the Move Lesson Plans - Grades K-12 Lesson Plans, Information Sheets, and Activity Sheets (including coloring pages and other sheets

Bee eBooks
Here are some eBooks I created. They are available on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Reid Park Zoo Activity Pages

https://reidparkzoo.org/category/bringing-the-zoo-to-you/activity-pages/

National Geographic Kids Coloring Pages

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/nature/coloring-book-animals-a-to-i/
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/explore/nature/coloring-book-animals-j-to-z/

Dance like Animals for International Dance Day

April 29 is International Dance Day. Find a dance and dance to it. Here are some dances that animals have performed.

Physical Education/Dance Activity: Dance to the music as they are played. You can pretend you are that animal and try to copy the moves the animals make. If you like, have someone video tape your dance moves.

Dancing Blue Footed Boobies - Ranger Rick
Dance with the Blue Footed Boobies. If you have blue socks, put those on, if not, pretend you are wearing blue socks.

The Stunning Dance of the Peacock Spider! - Ranger Rick

A Spanish Dancer Nudibranch Gives a Graceful Performance Every Time It Swims - Ranger Rick
This has beautiful music played as the background music.
Dance with the music as you watch the nudibranch swims (dances) in the waters.

Flight of the Bumblebee
This a link found on my blog.

Monte Bean Life Science Museum BYU

The Monte Bean Life Science Museum is located in Provo, Utah at Brigham Young University (BYU). We went to this museum in 2008. There are lots of resources at this museum.

Here are some educational resources you can find online for this museum. On the Activities page, I listed only the activities that you can do without visiting the museum.

Audio Tour

Activities: Scavenger Hunts, Animal Paper Airplanes & Coloring Pages, and Intro to Africa Coloring Book, etc.

Alphabet Animals
Go on a virtual animal hunt for this museum or use the web to find different animals that begin with that letter of the alphabet. When searching for that animal on the Monte Bean Life Science Museum website, listen to the Audio Tour for the different animals or watch the Exhibit Videos. Write down the animal on the paper. Enjoying having fun while learning about the animals.

Discovery Reading Videos: Listen to various children's books on this page.

Exhibit Videos: This includes Education Videos, Conservation Kids Videos, Tanner Lecture Videos, etc. located at the bottom of the page.

Lichens of BYU Campus

Mudskippers

Have you ever heard of the Mudskipper? It is a fish. Learn more about them in the below video.

Weird Creatures: Mudskippers

Be Kind to Animals Week

I was searching for "May animals of the month". I learned that this week is Be Kind to Animals Week. For 2020 it is from May 3-9. Be Kind to Animals Week was initiated in 1915 by the American Humane Association. It has been celebrated for 105 years. Read more about it at.
Commemorating a Century of "Be Kind to Animals Week" 1915-2015: American Humane Assoication Kindness 100

Links
Be Kind to Animals Week: Delray Beach Public Library
Including a reading list.

Be Kind to Animals Week®

Animals

Animal Sounds
Animal Sounds All Over the World

Arts & Crafts
Animal Finger Puppets

Language Arts
Add-a-Letter Animals
Animal Letters
Hidden Animals
Mystery Animal

Science
Animal Appetites

Snacks
Marshmallow Animals

The below links have church related information in them. They can be adapted to your needs.

Lesson
I Can Be Kind to Animals: Lesson 35, Primary 1
Includes a bunny coloring page, finger plays ("My Little Kitten", "Noah"), and other ideas. This lesson can be adapted to a school or other settings by using parts of the suggested activities.

Lesson 35: I Can Be Kind to Animals

Activities
Animal Matchup
Mixed Up Animals: Noah

Science
Creatures Revealed (Matthew 13)

Raccons

A raccoon is a nocturnal animal. They love to hunt for food at night..

Books
Raccoons and Ripe Corn by Jim Arnosky
The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn  
A Pocket Full of Kisses by Audrey Penn

eBooks
I wrote two Corn eBooks
They are for the alphabet and numbers 0-25.
You can use it with the book Raccoons and Ripe Corn by Jim Arnosky.

Raccoon Facts, Photos

Procyon lotor (Linnaeus); Raccoon
 
Raccoon Activities
AFUNK: Raccoon Coloring Book
First-School: Raccoon Theme Preschool Activities and Crafts

Owls

There are many type of owls. Some owls are nocturnal (which means they are active during the night). Some owls are diurnal (which means they are active during the day). Three diurnal owls include the Northern hawk-owl, Burrowing Owl, and the Snowy Owl. There might be other owls that are active during the day but you will need to research to find those owls.

Owls
AllAboutBirds (CornellLab)
Owls | Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Owls | Oregon
Living With Wildlife: Owls | Washington

Barn Owl
AllAboutBirds: Barn Owl

Barred Owl
AllAboutBirds: Barred Owl
Wikipedia: Barred Owl

Burrowing Owl
Burrowing Owls - Athene cunicularia Facts, photos, and owl calls (sounds).
All About Birds: Burrowing Owl
Wikipedia: Burrowing Owl

Great Horned Owl
AllAboutBirds: Great Horned Owl

Horned Owl/Eagle Owl
Owl hooting - YouTube

Snowy Owl
Coloring.ws: Snowy Owl
All About Birds: Snowy Owl
Wikipedia: Snowy Owl

Spotted Owl
AllAboutBirds: Spotted Owl

Owl Cams
Great Horned Owl Cam - AZGFD
Watch Live Barred Owls! Wild Birds Unlimited Barred Owl Cam | Cornell Lab - YouTube

Owl Documentaries
Experiment! How Does An Owl Fly So Silently? | Super Powered Owls | BBC - YouTube
Great Horned Owl on the Hunt | Nat Geo Wild - YouTube

Reading or Story Time
Children enjoy reading books or have books read to them.

Here are some books you can find online or at your local library.

Owl Babies by Martin Waddell (A popular children's book.)
[Read Aloud] Owl Babies by Martin Waddell - YouTube
Owl Babies Picture Book Animation - YouTube

Little Owl's Night Board Book by Divya Srinivasan
Little Owl's Night - Animated - YouTube

Guardians of Ga'Hoole Book Series by Kathryn Lasky

DVDs
You can even watch the movie, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'hoole.

Owl Crafts
Felt Owl Pattern
Flying Owl and A Home for Mr. Owl: Summer Reading 2012 Storytime Brainstorming
Harry Potter Party Owl Balloons
Paper Plate Owl Craft: Mommy Savers
Snowy Owl Winter Craft - This uses a shower sponge (loofah) for the owl's body using white craft paint. You use construction paper for the owls eyes (yellow, white, and black), black for the beak and feet, and brown for the branch the owl is sitting on..  

Coloring Pages
abcteach: Owl Coloring Pages
AFUNK: Owl Coloring Book
Coloring.ws
CyberSleuth Kids: Owl Coloring Page
Owl Coloring Page @ Preschool Coloring Book

Masks
Zoomboomafoo: Moonface the Barn Owl Mask 

Puppets
Colorful Shape Owl Craft for Kids
Paper Bag Animal Puppet - A Fun Owl Craft for Kids 
Snowy Owl Paper Bag Puppet Craft

National Geographic: Virtual Tour of Jane Goodall

The National Geographic Museum Releases a Virtual Tour of its Current Exhibition “Becoming Jane: The Evolution of Dr. Jane Goodall”
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2020/04/03/the-national-geographic-museum-releases-a-virtual-tour-of-its-current-exhibition-becoming-jane-the-evolution-of-dr-jane-goodall

Bald Eagle Nest in a Saguaro

https://www.abc15.com/news/state/azgfd-spots-first-documented-bald-eagle-nest-in-a-saguaro

Mr. Popper's Penguins Book

Mr. Popper's Penguins is one of my favorite books. I read this book in January of 2014. It has the funniest situations in it. It sure made me laugh (and cry from laughing so hard). I enjoyed this book so much that I bought it from Amazon.com.

Other labels: Mr. Popper's Penguins, penguin theme, penguin theme unit