Insect Ideas With Literacy

Check out these Insect Ideas with Literacy connections. While learning about insects, we had to integrate all those common core standards to make our learning the most meaningful. Check out these literacy integration ideas with the book I Wish I Were a Butterfly, The Very Grouchy Ladybug, and even some technology integration ideas that I know you will love.

Insect Ideas: I Wish I Were a Butterfly

My little learner’s dove into this beautifully illustrated book all about insects, I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe. Check out these exquisite illustrations. I love this story because it is a great, uplifting book about the strengths of everyone and kindness.

This book, I Wish I Were a Butterfly, is all about a cricket who thinks he is ugly. To cover almost all our reading comprehension standards, we played this FUN reading comprehension game all about this book.

My students take turns answering reading comprehension questions about the book. You can choose to give them the choices on each card or not. If they answer the questions correctly, they are given a roll of the die and a chance to move around the board.

Insect Ideas: Science & Technology Fun

We also used integrated technology by using the QR Scan & Learn~ Insects set to learn about insects independently. This set covers 5 insects; ladybug, ant, dragonfly, bee, and butterfly. You can scan these codes with iPhones or Chromebooks.

Your students scan the QR codes and listen to the information on the sheet. In fact, they are supposed to follow along with the reading and use the pictures given on the sheet.

At the end of each section, the students fill in their answers on the record sheet WITH the recording. The best news is… each section is just a few minutes. And your students can listen to a section a few times if they need to or if they want to hear the information again.

Insect Idea: The Very Grouchy Ladybug

We also used the amazing book, The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. With this book, we also played this reading comprehension game. With a fun game board and answer key! We also used pictures and words to sequence the story using the beginning, middle, and ending of the story.

We also completed this independent writing activity with a word wall.

Insect Ideas: Phonics Skills & Sequencing

We also completed this syllable sorting activity using the creatures from the book. We clapped out the creatures and placed them on the leaves labeled 1, 2, 3, or 4.

 You can see the ladybug for the word leaf, lobster, gorilla, and elephant. We also sequenced the life cycle of the ladybug to tie in the science curriculum.

Insect Ideas: Math

Next, for math, we used these ten frame cards to create sets of 10 with a missing addend.

There are 5 sets of cards themed with creatures from the book on each set. The ten frames add great, visual support to encourage learners to find the missing number in a way that makes sense in their little minds.

Then, we used these ladybugs on a leaf card to make subtraction sentences. We did this in math groups today. After we created the subtraction sentences, we also used the sentence to guide story problems.

For example, one of my little wonderfuls told the group; “4 ladybugs were on the leaf. One got hungry and left. There were 3 ladybugs left.” Another one of my little loves shared the story; “4 ladybugs were looking for some aphids. One didn’t find any aphids. How many ladybugs did not find any aphids?”