Teach Early Literacy Skills with Ladybug Themed Visual Discrimination Cards

Ladybugs might be the cutest beetles in the insect world. What with their red and yellow bodies and black polka dots, preschoolers adore them. Make learning fun, and a little more adorable, with these free ladybug theme visual discrimination cards. And, they teach early literacy skills, too! This post contains a free printable, to be sure to grab it from the end of the post.

Ladybug Visual Discrimination Cards FREE Printable

Visual discrimination is the ability to identify differences in visual images.

They are common activities in early childhood, and visual discrimination skills are important in learning how to read and write, but also are used in math, social studies, and in social intersections as well. 

Activities like sorting by size, shape, and color strengthen a child’s observational skills. These tasks provide opportunities for the brain to interpret and process visual information. More thoroughly, visual discrimination skills are

visual skills that require the ability to detect specific features of an object,  to recognize it, to match,  or duplicate it,  and to categorize it.

(source) 

But how does visual discrimination practice develop early literacy skills? In learning how to read and write, the importance of visual discrimination lies in this: children must be able to successfully distinguish between different letters in order to read and write words. If your child is unable to distinguish the letter “p” from the letter “b”, he will incorrectly read the word “pat” as “bat”. This inevitably will lead to frustration in learning how to read as well as self-doubt and avoidance. That’s why visual discrimination activities are so popular and important in preschool. From basic matching activities to sorting for differences, visual discrimination has an important role in early childhood education.  These ladybug theme visual discrimination cards are just the right challenge for preschoolers as they require close observation to find the differences. 

Free Ladybug Visual Discrimination Cards

These ladybug visual discrimination cards teach early literacy skills, not to mention they seriously add to the adorableness of ladybugs! (Is “adorableness” a word? Well, it is now!)

Materials

• ladybug visual discrimination cards 
• clothes pins or paper clips (optional)

If you are looking for more of a fine motor challenge for your children, these clothespins work great. 

Your free ladybug visual discrimination cards can be grabbed from the end of this post.

The Set-Up

Print and laminate the cards. Then cut them apart. Just place them in a pile on a tray and invite your preschooler to join you in some early literacy fun. Alternatively, you can leave the cards as one whole sheet and place them in a dry-erase pocket. Or, you can even cut apart the cards, hole punch them, and put them on a binder ring to read and flip through. (I find this option perfect for quiet “waiting” activities, like at the doctor’s office, at a restaurant, or even at church).

How to Teach Early Literacy Skills Using the Visual Discrimination Cards

Like most visual discrimination activities, these cards require adult supervision at the very least, but the best circumstances allow for an adult to work directly with the child as the cards to require some reading. Some preschoolers like enjoy the challenge of just looking at the cards and trying to identify the different ladybugs, but not every card is as simple as identifying which ladybug is different. In the photo above the question is, “Which ladybug is white with red flowers?” The photo below asks, “Which ladybug has zig-zag lines?” Don’t forget you can grab these visual discrimination cards at the end of this post! This set of visual discrimination cards come with 12 unique cards and questions to challenge your preschoolers. They require your preschooler to look closely at each ladybug and analyze, if you will, their differences while finding similarities, too.  This is a good opportunity to slow down a little bit and talk with your preschooler. Use these cards to ask some questions that will elicit more than yes of no answers. Some other questions you could ask are:

• What colors are the ladybugs?
• What do the ladybugs have on them?
• How many ladybug do you see?
• What would you do if you saw a ladybug like this?
• When have you seen a real ladybug?
• What would you do so take care of a ladybug?

These are questions you could ask with any of the twelve cards and continuing discussions beyond the question on the card will also help develop oral language skills. Just try to steer away from basic yes of no questions, unless you are trying these cards with young toddlers. 

Looking for More Ladybug Activities?

I’ve paired up with the best bloggers in early childhood education to give you some brand new activities for your insects preschool theme.

Check them out below and then grab your FREE ladybug visual discrimination cards at the end of this post.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

Ladybug Syllable Sort // Fairy Poppins

Ladybug Themed Visual Discrimination Cards // Stay at Home Educator

Editable Ladybug Roll a Word // The Primary Post

Ladybug Cover Up Alphabet Activity // Fun Learning for Kids

Ladybug Counting Cards // Teach Me Mommy

Ladybug Subtraction Write and Wipe Cards // Sara J. Creations

Want These Ladybug Visual Discrimination Cards? 

You can grab your free cards in clicking the image below. Then check out my other insects printables below!

Looking for More Insect Printables?

Take a look at these!

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If you’re looking for some low-prep insect theme preschool centers, try my Insects Activity Pack for Preschoolers.

Insect Activity Pack for Preschoolers