These What The Ladybird Hears activities and crafts are great as extension activities for the books by Julia Donaldson or just as a simple way to keep your child entertained and having fun.
This series has been one of my kid’s favorites to listen to or read over the years and whether this is a book that you’re using for a topic in your preschool or topic or you just need some inspiration to keep you busy on rainy days or school holidays, you’ll find loads of easy and fun ideas here.
What The Ladybird Heard Activities and Crafts
Julia Donaldson was definitely one of my kids favorite authors when they were younger and our copies of her books have become totally battered over the years from how much they’ve been used and read again and again.
I certainly don’t think we’re on our own with this popular story as over the years both my kids have had Julia Donaldson books as their topics in the early years of school and we’ve also attended toddler and playgroups with a Julia Donaldson theme.
What The Ladybird Heard has to be one of my favorite Julia Donaldson books as in addition to the plot of the fine prize cow, the criminals who try to steal her and our hero the ladybird there’s also plenty of opportunities for crafts and activities that you can try.
All the activities that I’m sharing today appear in the same order as you’ll see them in the collages.
There are more ideas than are shown in the pictures though so do take a look through to see which you’d like to try and don’t forget to bookmark this page or pin an image so that is easy to return to at a later date.
I’ve also done a round up of What The Ladybird Heard at the Seaside activities with crafts and printables suited to that book (mermaids and whales as well as ladybirds!) so if you’ve read that book be sure to check it out too.
Play and Learn Everyday have a great What The Ladybird Heard story sack that would be perfect for younger children to play with.
Print off this free What The Ladybird Heard wanted poster and draw in Lanky Len and Hefty Hugh. There’s four different variations so you could change who you think should be wanted and there’s also room to add some writing if you’d like to use this to support literacy skills.
This What The Ladybird Heard paper plate craft is made with movable wings so you could use the back area for some literacy work or you could hide a little picture there of what your ladybird heard!
I love these ladybird suncatchers from Here Come The Girls which would look beautiful on display in a school or preschool window or in your child’s room at home.
I made these cotton bud printed ladybirds with my daughter when she was a toddler and the post also contains a few ideas for how you could change this activity for different age groups.
There are some great free printable activities over on Kiddycharts with lots of different resources including a What The Ladybird Heard colouring sheet, dominoes, find the ladybird activity and an activity to match the animal to the noise that they make.
The Gruffalo site has a free printable pack for some of the stories created by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Lydia Monks, as well as activities for The Singing Mermaid and The Rhyming Rabbit (amongst others) it has a word search and a printable activity sheet for drawing the Snuggly Snerd from What The Ladybird Heard Next.
Make up a news report of the events of the book and then present it to the rest of the class or your family if you’re at home. Use a table for a mock news desk and you could even interview people such as asking the farmer what he thought of the robber’s plan.
Want to create some of the farm animals from the book? Try out this easy pig craft, this sheep, or this ‘not quite a chicken craft but I think it’s close enough’ chick craft.
Red Ted Art share a sweet handprint ladybird craft as part of their handprint alphabet series.
Make ladybird biscuits using black and red icing or try adding raisins or chocolate chips for the ladybird’s spots.
Housing A Forest shares a ladybird craft that you can make using recycled cardboard.
More Activities for Children’s Books
This paper plate craft for The Snail and The Whale is movable so your characters can sail across the ocean, can you see the little snail on the whale’s tail?
Make this The Scarecrow’s Wedding paper bag craft which can be used as puppets too!
Have you read Sue Hendra’s Supertato books? We love them and this Evil Pea paper plate craft is perfect to make alongside the books.