L is for Ladybug!

Welcome to our next letter of the week! We did a few letter L and ladybug activities!

Keep scrolling to see what Sweet E did this week, or click on the links below to revisit similar themes I've done with her big brother and big sister.

I is for Insects - 2015

L is for Light - 2015

Bugs - 2013

The Letter L - 2013

Introducing the Letter L

I created another page for Sweet E to learn the letter L, which including tracing, stamping, poking, building with tape, and painting with a q-tip. 

I try to mix up the building portion of this worksheet, to give her some variety. For previous letters, we've done playdoh, craft sticks, string, blocks, etc. 

And she loves using the giant pushpin!

Here is the completed page!

Though just as last week, she saw it hanging up near her craft table a few days later, and asked to do it again. So we just went right over everything in another color.

One-to-One Correspondence - Ladybug Math

I created this playdoh mat (and others) many years ago, and we keep coming back to it! I took a die from a game, with the numbers 1-6. Then I asked Sweet E to roll the die to see how many spots to put on the ladybug.

This was a great activity! First she had to count the dots on the die, then say the number, and finally, roll the pieces of dough into balls. 

We did this several times until she had gotten each number on the die.

Ladybug Craft

It seemed like a good time for a glue craft! So I gave Sweet E a paper plate and several red tissue paper squares to stick all over it.

Once it was filled, she glued on some black circles for the ladybug's spots.

Finally, a half circle for the head, and two eye stickers!

Alphabet Scavenger Hunt

I was inspired by a post from No Time for Flashcards to do a bug hunt. But I made my own, since we were limited to ladybugs. First I hid our ladybug letters around the backyard, and then I set Sweet E out in search of them!

Each time she found one, she had to come put them into our bug jar. I'm not the best at drawing, but I think it resembles a jar well enough. LOL. In case it became windy, I had laid a piece of contact paper (sticky-side-up) over the jar, to help them stay in place.

I had also traced each ladybug in advance, so she not only matched the letters, but turned them to fit like a puzzle.

She loved searching for ladybugs!

Here is her completed jar!

Letter L Review

Sweet E is always asking for "homework" when her big brother and big sister are doing theirs. So I've been printing these great free printables from Teachers Pay Teachers.

She loves these!

L is for Light!

Books

Here are our books for today's letter of the day. We really enjoyed I See Myself. It really put the concepts of reflection and light into terms young kids can understand.

Here's an example of one of the inside pages, which asks the reader to try to look in the mirror in a dark closet. Loved this book!

Letter Recognition

After reading our books, we completed one letter recognition activity. Placing gems on the letter L (this dot marker page comes from Shannon's Tot School). I printed the page onto vellum paper, and placed it on today's sensorial activity, our light box! It was just our usual sensory bin, with Christmas lights placed inside then plugged in, and a piece of parchment paper taped over the top. Worked out great, without being too fancy.

Light Box - Sensorial Activity

I had been wanting to do a light table for a long time, since seeing them on Pinterest. We did a simple version here today, while exploring light and color-mixing. We observed our water blocks over the light for quite a while.

Then we brought the gems back out, as well as a few small, clear cups.

Little M&M, in particular, enjoyed filling these cups and pouring the gems back and forth.

They also enjoyed scooping and sorting.

Then the kids brought the blocks back onto the light box to combine with the gems.

And Honey Pot, ever the fan of pretend play, brought a little giraffe over to eat some gems while she had her own dinner.

A successful theme!

The Letter L

Theme: The Letter L

Honey Pot is 2 years and 9 months old

Little M&M is 11 months old

Leap Frog Fridge Phonics

We started our theme this week by finding the L fridge magnet and listening to Scout’s song about the sound the letter L makes. Honey Pot seems to know this letter pretty well, so she had no trouble finding it!

L is for Ladybug Craft

I found this idea on Pinterest via The Iowa Farmer’s Wife. I just switched the colors around a bit to my liking. First I cut out the shapes out of construction paper for Honey Pot.

Then she started gluing the pieces together.

When she was all finished I had her count the spots on her ladybug, for some extra math practice!

Very cute!

L is for Lollipop – Playdough

Seeking Shade had a fun activity where they shaped their playdough into Popsicles and decorated them with beads. We decided to do the same for lollipops. First we did the usual cookie cutter cutout for the letter of the week.

I turned around to help Little M&M with something, and came back to this attempt:

Then we made some lollipops! I let Honey Pot use some of my scrapbooking supplies.

Then later we got out another color of playdough, and decorated our lollipops with buttons.

Don’t worry, she’s just pretending to eat it…

L is for Lemon Experiment

This is a popular experiment I keep seeing. It is also known as invisible ink. First I gathered our supplies.

Then asked Honey Pot to help me get the juice from the lemon.

We used Q-Tips for her to draw a picture with the lemon juice. I also drew a couple of things.

Once it had dried completely, we used a heat source to make our drawings magically appear. You need something super hot! We used our griddle…with extreme caution of course!

Ta da!

L is for Limbo

We concluded our L theme with a fun dance. We pulled up Limbo Rock on You Tube, and played it over and over. (Warning: song may stay in your head for up to one week.) And our dining room chairs seemed perfect for holding our limbo stick (a broken broom) at different levels. First I showed Honey Pot how to play the game (um, ouch) and then there was no stopping her!

We weren’t strict on the rules, since Honey Pot is only two and a half!

Even Little M&M joined in the fun!

The crab walk—genius!

Honey Pot wanted it even lower, so we suspended our limbo stick on a couple of low toys. She and Little M&M crawled under it.

It was so incredibly fun!