A million years ago, well actually maybe just 5 years ago, I has a very short stint as a 'book consultant'. Yep, another thing on my list. Well, it was short-lived, cause it quickly became apparent that I was spending a lot of money on books. In fact, not only was I not making money from the 'selling' I was supposed to be doing, but the bank balance was going south, rapidly.
But, as I told my hubby at the time, 'books are an investment'.
We have a HUGE investment in books.
The book I want to share with you today is The Very Hungry Caterpillar! An oldie, but a complete goodie!
After reading it to the class, I like to read other 'caterpillar' books, and talk about what is the same and different in them. It is also a great opportunity to introduce the idea of literary vs factual books!
I also love to get a whole stack of Eric Carle books out, and provide lots of opportunity for students to explore his stories and artwork. It is such fun for the students to create some artworks in the style of Eric Carle also. Do lots of 'texture' and 'print' paintings, one week, in a stack of colours. When they are dry, the next week, or day, you can get them cutting and layering their shape sot make pictures.
One of my oldest copies of The Very Hungry Caterpillar (cough, cough, I think I own 7), bit the dust. So instead of sending it to book heaven, I chopped it up and laminated it. NOW, I use it for sequencing and display.
I keep an eye out when I am at the shops, and any cheap books on sale ($1-$2), I buy 3 copies and do the same. Use one for the story - and one to chop up and use for sequencing activities.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is such a wonderful book for K-2 classrooms! Here is a list of themes you can incorporate into your discussion and follow up activities:
- Basic Addition and Subtraction
- Butterflies
- Caterpillars
- Change
- Cooking
- Counting
- Days of the Week
- Diary Writing (On Monday....)
- Eric Carle Author Study
- Heathy Eating
- Food
- Life Cycles
- Living Things
- Painting techniques (using various tools to achieve painting effects)
- Size and Growth
- Story Sequencing
And that is just the beginning! What do you like to do with The Very Hungry Caterpillar in your classroom?
Here is a freebie I created for you, some basic tracing for your youngest learners - find it in the tracing category of our Pond Coloring Club.
