Studying Life Cycles is one of our second grade Science Content Standards. To learn about ladybugs, we watched a movie called the The Ladybird Beetle. We also read several books and students conducted research on the Internet to find ladybug information. We had real live ladybug larva from Ladybug Land in our classroom. Students kept journals of their observations as they viewed insect metamorphosis.

 Our unit supports the UDL model. The students brainstormed different ways to present the information they learned during our study of ladybugs. These included writing a poem about what it feels like to be a ladybug and illustrating with finger paint, making a model of the ladybug's life cycle using model magic, constructing a model of a ladybug's anatomy using various materials, painting the adult stage of the ladybug life cycle (emergence from the pupa to when the ladybug's wings harden), and writing a reader's theater. The students had their choice of the activity they wished to participate in.

Listen to Our Interview

Ladybug Feelings
 I wonder if ladybugs like to be ladybugs.
 I suppose they do.
It's fun to suck up the juice from aphids just like sucking juice from a straw.
 It's fun to tickle a bug watcher in the muddy grass.
 It feels so delightful because I am the tiniest creature in the world.
When I'm flying, it feels like I'm floating in the air.

Ladybug Life Cycles

Anatomy

Ladybugs