{"id":2139,"date":"2010-01-26T10:29:52","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T15:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/archives\/2139"},"modified":"2010-01-26T10:29:52","modified_gmt":"2010-01-26T15:29:52","slug":"teaching-life-science-with-childrens-literature-are-you-a-ladybug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/openwidelookinside\/2010\/01\/26\/teaching-life-science-with-childrens-literature-are-you-a-ladybug\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Life Science with Children’s Literature: Are You a Ladybug?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"ladybug-cover.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Are you a ladybug?<\/a> written by Judy Allen and illustrated by Tudor Humphries takes us through the life cycle of a ladybug.\u00a0 Allen begins by showing us what a ladybug’s parents look like.\u00a0 She then goes on to tell us that the mother lays eggs, the babies inside grow and then brake out.\u00a0 At this point they may wonder if they are ladybugs because they don’t look anything like a ladybug.The babies are not the same shape or color as their parents.\u00a0 As time goes on, the babies eat and grow.\u00a0 Their skin becomes tight, it cracks and they wriggle out of it.\u00a0 They do this over and over again until they finally emerge as the same shape as a lady bug but very pale and with no spots.\u00a0 “Slowly, slowly, slowly, your color grows stronger.\u00a0 Your black dots appear.\u00a0 Congratulations, you’re a ladybug<\/strong>!”<\/p>\n

Curriculum Connections<\/strong>
\nThis book would be a fun resource to use when introducing life cycles to students and for teaching students that not all babies resemble their parents when they are born.\u00a0 Many children know that butterflies start out as caterpillars and that frogs start out as tadpoles but I bet that most of them don’t know that a ladybug doesn’t start out as a ladybug.\u00a0 It would be interesting to show pictures of a few baby insects (including a ladybug) and animals to the class and ask what they will grow up to be before reading this book. \u00a0\u00a0 With younger children the book would be used to show that animals need to eat to survive, that they change as they grow and have varied life cycles.\u00a0 It would also be used to teach students that offspring of animals are similar but not identical to their parents.\u00a0 (VA SOL K.7 a, c,d).\u00a0 It could be used with older students to teach that animals undergo a series or orderly changes as they mature and grow (VA SOL 2.4 a).<\/p>\n

Additional Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n