Sparky Learns About the Ladybug Life Cycle Plant and Animal Life Cycles Sparky Learns About the Ladybug Life Cycle Correlation Fountas & Pinnell N DRA 30 Written under funding from Monroe 2 Orleans BOCES by: Antonietta Quinn, Resource Teacher Ashlee Bryant, Reading Specialist Kristen Giuliano, Reading Specialist Paulette Reddick, Reading Specialist Designed and Printed by the BOCES 2 Printing and Graphics Services. 1/10 Copyright 2010 by the Board of Cooperative Educational Services for the Second Supervisory District of Monroe and Orleans Counties, Elementary Science Program. All rights reserved. This publication may only be reproduced for one-time classroom use. No part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted or reproduced, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Monroe 2 Orleans BOCES, Elementary Science Program. Elementary Science Program www.espsciencetime.org
It was a warm day, and Sparky was in her backyard. She walked to her favorite spot. It is a garden with some of her favorite flowers. Sparky looked at a leaf on one of the plants. She saw something strange underneath the leaf. There were ten tiny objects on the leaf. They looked like small yellow jellybeans. What are these? Sparky wondered to himself. I ve never seen anything like this before. I hope you enjoyed watching the four stage life cycle of the ladybug, Sparky, said Lucy. Many different animals have a four stage life cycle like ladybugs. Butterflies, bees, flies, and beetles all have this four stage life cycle called metamorphosis. Metamorphosis means change. Sparky loved watching the metamorphosis of the ladybugs. She enjoyed observing them grow and change. 2 11
A week later, Sparky was sniffing around the backyard again. She looked over and saw her friends had come out of the pupa stage. They still looked different from Lucy; they were pink. After a few hours, they turned red in color. Finally, she saw their spots appear. Sparky heard a tiny voice from the leaf. Hello! My name is Lucy the Ladybug. Those yellow objects on the leaf are my eggs. Be very careful not to hurt them, she said. Sparky knew her friends now had a new job. The job of an adult ladybug is not to just eat aphids but to mate and lay eggs. She was excited to know that she would watch a new group of ladybugs grow up. The life cycle would start again. Sparky stepped back from the plant so she would not harm the eggs. 10 3
I laid the eggs today, and they will hatch in a week, explains Lucy. They are the beginning of a new life cycle of ladybugs. Everything is okay, Sparky, Lucy said. The larvae have finished growing. They have stopped moving and are attached to a leaf. This is the start of the pupa stage. The job of the pupa is to change into the adult. Many changes are going on inside the pupa. In a week, we will see the adult ladybugs. Sparky had to wait again, and she didn t feel very patient. She wanted to watch her new friends eat and grow some more. Sparky was excited. She wanted to observe the young ladybugs hatch. She was curious about what they would look like and what they would do. Sparky said to Lucy that she would visit again soon. 4 9
One day, Sparky went out to see the larvae. When she got to the plants, no insects were there, and Sparky was worried. What happened to the larvae? Sparky wondered. Just then, Lucy flew over to Sparky. A week later, Sparky visited the plant to check on the eggs. There was Lucy standing on the leaf again. The eggs hatched! yelled Lucy. Sparky could hardly believe her eyes! The young ladybugs looked different from Lucy. They reminded Sparky of little alligators. Sparky was puzzled. 8 5
I know that they don t look the way I do, said Lucy. This is the larva stage of a ladybug. They won t always look this way. The larva stage lasts for only a few weeks, but it is a very busy stage. The job of the larva is to eat and grow. In the next few weeks, Sparky watched the ladybug larvae eat aphids and grow. They shed their skin when they grew. They shed their skin many times, and Sparky knew that this was called molting. 6 7