We started our school year with a fun project!  The whole process went on for a few weeks as we watched the life cycle of Ladybugs!

The first thing we did was order the Insect Lore Ladybug Land.   It’s super affordable and totally worth it!  All of my girls loved this entire project!

It comes with a code to order the Ladybug Larvae.  For us it took a bit because of the extreme heat we were having here in Texas.  But when they came they were alive with all the food they need.  You simply pour them into the habitat and add some water with the provided dropper.

It has a cap on the top that doubles as a magnifying glass so you can get a real good look at what is going on in there.

The girls loved checking on them daily and they grew soooo fast!

After awhile the Larvae will start moving up and attaching themselves to the side of the dome.  Then they begin to transform into the Pupa stage.  You can see one that is changing in the photo below.

Then pretty suddenly, there are ladybugs!  I can not even tell you how excited my girls when they awoke to a ton of ladybugs!

When they had all turned into ladybugs it was time to let them go.  The girls were a little sad, but I explained to them that they needed to go do their jobs and live their life’s!  Then they were happy to let them go.  The ladybugs hung out and played for a bit though!

Then it was time to create our Ladybug Life Cycle project!  We had went shopping for the supplies while we were waiting on our Ladybug Land to arrive.  We purchased everything we needed from Walmart.  You can see our shopping trip since we documented it on This Moment.

Supplies we needed were:

• Elmer’s X-TREME School Glue Stick
• Elmer’s 18″x24″ Guideline® Foam Tri-Fold Display Board
• Project Popperz® Permanent Markers 4ct
• Craft Brads
• Index Cards
• Construction Paper
• Posterboard or Card Stock
• Velcro Dots
• Scissors
• Printouts

The first thing we did was use the Elmer’s X-TREME  School Glue to to glue some of our printouts to poster board so that they would be more sturdy.

I really do love this product!  It actually stays stuck!  If you haven’t tried it yet, then you need to pick up some next time and give it a try.  This is not your average glue stick.

After gluing our cutouts to the board we cut them out again for a much sturdier piece.  Then we glued our life cycle phases to our wheel.

Then poke a hole through the center of both pieces as well as the display board.  Using these holes attach everything together.

Then using the Project Poppers the girls titled the display board and decorated it a bit.

Next we used index cards to write down our Ladybug vocabulary words.  We glued part of an envelope to the board to hold our cards.
We also had Ladybug Life Cycle sequencing cards that we attached with Velcro.  This way we can take them off and the girls can practice sticking them on in the right order.  They also each drew their own ladybugs with the project poppers on construction paper.

The happy girls with their finished project!

This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Elmer’s #xtremeschoolglue #collectivebias

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