Easy Grouchy Ladybug Craft for Kids!

Is your little one feeling a little grumpy? Channel those furrowed brows into something creative with our fun Grouchy Ladybug craft!

This adorable paper plate craft for kids is the perfect rainy-day activity or way to celebrate the arrival of spring with your little ones.

It is simple enough for preschoolers and allows them to explore their creativity and fine motor skills while crafting a delightfully grumpy (or happy!) ladybug friend.

This adorable craft for kids is the perfect rainy day activity or way to celebrate the arrival of spring with your little ones. Looking for even more ladybug fun?

Pair this fun craft with a great science book about ladybugs and explore their fascinating world together.

This craft is simple enough for preschoolers and allows them to explore their creativity and fine motor skills while crafting a delightfully grumpy (or happy!) ladybug friend.

Crafting with preschoolers is a fantastic way to bond and have some messy fun! Paper plate crafts for kids, like our Grouchy Ladybug craft, are perfect because they’re simple to make and use readily available materials.

Plus, after creating their ladybug masterpiece, you can extend the fun by curling up with a great book about ladybugs and learning about their life cycle, role in the garden, or even the different spots they come in!

This ladybug theme is a great way to spark their curiosity and creativity, all while making adorable decorations or handmade gifts.

Grouchy Ladybug Craft

Let’s get crafty! This section will guide you through our fun paper plate ladybug. It’s a simple paper plate project perfect for little hands and pairs wonderfully with a great ladybug-themed book. Get ready to unleash your child’s inner artist and create a delightfully grumpy (or perhaps happy?) ladybug friend!

What You’ll Need

Paper plate
Red and black craft paint
Paint brushes
Wiggly eyes (googly eyes)
Hot glue gun and glue sticks (Adult use only!)
Black pipe cleaner
Black marker
A copy of The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle (optional, but highly recommended!)

What You’ll Do

To get started on this creative craft, turn your paper plate upside down and paint it red. Set this plate aside to dry.

Once the red paint is dry, use black paint to paint a small half circle on one side of the paper plate. This will be the ladybug’s head.

Continuing with the black paint, paint a black line from the middle of the half circle to the other end of the paper plate.

Paint black circles on each side of the black line. Set aside and allow time for the black paint to dry.

Use the hot glue gun to glue the wiggle eyes on the black half circle.

Cut a pipe cleaner in half and glue one of the black pipe cleaners on each side of the face for the antenna.

Bend the antenna back over the ladybug’s face/head and curl the tips with your fingers.

What is this book about?

In Eric Carle’s The Grouchy Ladybug, a grumpy little ladybug starts the day spoiling for a fight. But as it challenges increasingly larger creatures, the ladybug realizes picking fights might not be the best idea. Will the ladybug find a friend and maybe even a delicious snack by the end of the day?

The Grouchy Ladybug Activities

All done crafting your adorable ladybug? The fun doesn’t have to stop there! Dive deeper into the world of ladybugs with these engaging activities inspired by Eric Carle’s The Grouchy Ladybug. We’ve got ideas to get your little one moving, learning, and maybe even feeling a little less grumpy themselves!

Move Like a Ladybug

Turn your living room into a ladybug buffet! Scatter green construction paper circles around the floor (these are the yummy aphids!) and have your little ladybug crawl around collecting them! You can even time them to see how many they can gather in a minute.

Grumpy vs. Happy Sort

Cut out pictures of different emotions (happy faces, sad faces, angry faces) from magazines or draw them yourselves. Then, have your child sort different objects (toys, pictures from books) into piles based on whether they would make a ladybug happy or grumpy.