Our students are always ready for another lesson in appropriate social skills, and "The Grouchy Ladybug" provided such a format. After reading the book (The students were amazed I was letting them read a book that had creatures fighting in it!), we discussed what we had learned from the book. As always, I was amazed at the mix between students who perfectly understood the underlying issues, and the students who truly believed that the way they should solve their problem is to share aphids with others!

        We then created our own Grouchy Ladybugs using paper plates and paper fasteners. The students painted one plate black, and the other plate red. The tedious part was letting them dry. Later, the students had the opportunity to put black dots on their ladybug before we pieced them together. They also cut out a black head.

        The next step was for the students to decide how they would solve problems if they were a grouchy ladybug. Results ranged, but by the end of the day most of the students were coming up with pretty great solutions.