Free Ladybug Paper Crafts
- Small children will enjoy being allowed to use the hole-punch for an activity and will be pleased with the attractive result of this paper project. Cut out two circles of the same size from construction paper, one black and one red. Make these big, 6 to 8 inches across, for young children to work with easily. Let the child use the hole punch on the red construction paper circle to make as many holes as they would like. Then glue this circle on top of the black so it shows through as black spots. Cut out legs and a head from black paper to finish it off.
- A ladybug made of hearts can double as a Valentine's Day decoration or card, and could serve a third function as a lesson in geometric shapes for elementary school students. This craft begins with a large red heart cut from construction paper, a black heart about half the size of the red and several small hearts about 1/8 the size of the large one. Give children glue, ask them to create a ladybug from these pieces and see what they come up with, or you can give explicit instructions to glue the black heart onto the end of the red for the ladybug's head and the small ones on as spots.
- To engage older children in a ladybug paper craft, use a few more tools than scissors and glue. A perforating tool for working clay can be used to make dotted patterns around the edges of a paper craft, or children can use a hole-punch with several sizes of hole to make a pattern. Use brads as fasteners to give a paper ladybug swiveling wings and legs.
- There are always coloring pages for paper crafts if you don't want to mess with glue or scissors, and you can find free downloads of ladybug coloring pages to print out at many different websites. Try Enchanted Learning for free printouts of ladybug coloring pages and check out the coloring activities that will help children learn about the life cycle of ladybugs, too.
