Glitter Ladybirds and a hiding game - “What the ladybird heard” by Julia Donaldson

The mobile library parks itself on the corner near our house every third Thursday.  Luath has been going pre birth so she knows it well!  Today we got out of our back gate and she saw the van was there, she started pointing and shouting in a very excited voice “It’s here, look the library van is here, look, look”. 

There is always a great array of books to select from, often Luath wants to read one or two in the van and usually chooses at least one to take home.  As is custom after the library visit we came home, snuggled up on the sofa and read all the books we had borrowed. One of my choices this week was “What the ladybird heard” by Julia Donaldson (we are working our way through her many books).

It is a rhyming story picture book about how a ladybird who doesn’t usually speak outwits two thieves.  Luath loved the story and especially that each double page had a glittery ladybird to find.  Some ladybirds were very obvious, others were quite difficult.

The ladybird is in the bushes

I suggested that maybe we could make a glittered ladybird sometime.  Well Luath thought that sometime should be as soon as we had finished reading all the books.

Materials
Red paper
Black pen
Glue
Glitter

What we did
I drew a ladybird using a black pen onto red paper. 

We dabbed some glue over the ladybird’s body.  We didn’t give the ink enough time to dry so we did smudge a little.

Luath then had great fun covering the ladybird with glitter.  For her it is a slow process of choosing the colour, opening the lid, a slight sprinkle, reclosing the lid and then onto next colour; so for us this took a long time.
    

A ladybird hiding game
Next we made lots of small ladybirds in the same way. 

Once they were dry we hid them for each other to find.  Luath played the game with daddy when he got home from work.


on the window sill



in the toy garage

The Scottish Book Trust has some other ideas for extensions from the book and there are quite a few more resources online.

linked up with Read Explore Learn at JDaniel4's Mom
(Luath is 24 months)