THE GROUCHY LADYBUG activities and lesson plan ideas

Save yourself time and engage your students with these The Grouchy Ladybug activities. This jam-packed book companion is quick and easy to use - Just print and go!

Read on to learn more about all that is included in this standards-based interactive read aloud packet based on the children’s book, The Grouch Ladybug by Eric Care.

TO SAVE YOU TIME, WE'VE DONE ALL OF THE WORK FOR YOU!

1. We chose vocabulary words & kid-friendly definitions.
2. We selected mentor sentences & specific grammar skills for each.
3. We wrote 30 book-based writing prompts (that cover 10 genres of writing).
4. We identified an SEL focus / character education topic based on events in the story.
5. We constructed strategy-based reading comprehension questions and created no-prep, print-and-go reader response worksheets.

YOU ONLY NEED TO DO 3 QUICK & EASY STEPS:

STEP 1: PLAN

Simply customize your The Grouchy Ladybug lesson plans using the ideas in the teaching guide and choose from the 15 standards-based activities.

STEP 2: PREP

Prep can be as simple as printing the activity pages (or assigning the included digital version) and finding a free video of the book being read aloud online.

OPTIONAL: If you want to dive deeper into a book study, you’ll find our teaching ideas and slides make it easy to create mini-lessons, anchor charts, and slideshows.

STEP 3: TEACH

Engage your students with an interactive read aloud by reading or streaming the picture book. Practice reading comprehension strategies with text-based discussion questions. We even wrote the The Grouchy Ladybug comprehension questions for you!

Some teachers like to assemble and assign independent work packets. Others prefer to dive deeper into the story with vocabulary, grammar, SEL, and writing lessons that can span over several days.

THE GROUCHY LADYBUG BOOK COMPANION FOCUSES ON:

◼️READING SKILLS

☐ ANALYZING CHARACTER

☐ CAUSE AND EFFECT

☐ IDENTIFYING THEME | MESSAGE | MORAL

☐ MAKING INFERENCES

☐ SUMMARIZING / RETELLING

◼️GRAMMAR

☐ TYPES OF SENTENCES

☐ ADJECTIVES

☐ IRREGULAR VERBS

☐ SHADES OF MEANING

◼️SEL

☐ EMOTIONS

THE GROUCHY LADYBUG SUMMARY

One morning, two ladybugs flew onto a leaf at the same time. They both wanted to eat the aphids that covered the leaf. Immediately, the grouchy ladybug told the friendly ladybug to go away and that he wanted to eat the aphids. The friendly ladybug remained calm and suggested they share the bugs. However, the grouchy ladybug insisted upon eating the aphids himself and said he would fight the friendly ladybug for them. To his surprise, the friendly ladybug agreed to the fight. Feeling uncertain, the grouchy ladybug said the friendly ladybug was too small and flew off.

Throughout the book, the grouchy ladybug comes across a variety of animals and asks if they want to fight. Each time, the other animal agrees and each time the grouchy ladybug says they’re not big enough. By the end of the day, the grouchy ladybug had met a yellow jacket, praying mantis, stag, sparrow, lobster, skunk, boa constrictor, hyena, gorilla, rhinoceros, elephant, and a whale. In fact, the whale’s tale hit the ladybug and sent him flying back to the leaf he started his day at. The same friendly ladybug was there and offered to share what was left of the aphids. Feeling tired and hungry, the grouchy ladybug agreed.

THIS COLLECTION OF ACTIVITIES and LESSON IDEAS INCLUDES:

➜ Comprehension Questions categorized by reading strategy; text-dependent
➜ Social Emotional Learning guidance lesson ideas & discussion topics based on the story
➜ Vocabulary Activities with kid-friendly definitions
➜ Grammar Topics selected to align with the text
➜ Focus Sentences use the book & author's craft as a mentor text to improve writing
➜ Lesson Planner summary, background info and planning space

➜ Story Mapping Printable identify character, setting, problem and solution

➜ Making Words Activity Page use any word from the book

➜ Focus Sentence copy work, identifying elements of the sentence, rewriting)

➜ Design a New Book Cover demonstrate understanding of the text by creating an illustration

➜ Predicting Activity primary-ruled and wider-ruled versions
➜ Summarizing Somebody → Wanted → But → Then → Finally

➜ Comparing and Contrasting using a Venn Diagram

➜ Cause and Effect analyze how events affect one another

➜ Visualization illustrate visualizations from the story and support thinking with text-based evidence

➜ Making Connections identify text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections

➜ Thematic Writing Paper Use with the Writing Prompts... Makes a Great Bulletin Board

➜ 2 Sequencing Activities First → Next → Then → Last and Beginning → Middle → End

➜ 2 Vocabulary Activities Vocabulary Booklet and Word Mapping

➜ 2 Character Trait Activities listing traits and supporting traits with text-based evidence
➜ 30 Text-Based Writing Prompts 3 prompts for each of the following types of writing:

• narrative
• persuasive / opinion
• descriptive
• expository / informative
• creative / story writing
• procedure / how-to
• list making
• letter / postcard writing
• poem
• book reviews

INCLUDED DIGITAL ACTIVITIES:

➜ 5 Teaching Slides to use for instruction (add questions, vocabulary, instructions, etc)

➜ 15 Student Pages for use in Google™️ Classroom or as editable files to create customized printables