Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Grouchy Ladybug will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of emotions, this The Grouchy Ladybug picture book by Eric Carle is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with The Grouchy Ladybug Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Grouchy Ladybug. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with The Grouchy Ladybug reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
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.
THE GROUCHY LADYBUG LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for The Grouchy Ladybug, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based The Grouchy Ladybug reading comprehension questions focus on:
- analyzing character
- cause and effect
- identifying theme, message, moral
- making inferences
- summarizing/retelling
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- emotions
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- types of sentences
- adjectives
- irregular verbs
- shades of meaning
THE GROUCHY LADYBUG ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for The Grouchy Ladybug?
- Lexile® Measure: 560L
- Guided Reading Level: N
- DRA Level: 28
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3-3.2
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Eric Carle. It was illustrated by Eric Carle.
What genre is The Grouchy Ladybug?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 48 pages long.
