The Very Hungry Caterpillar Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan #:AELP-STT000
Submitted by: Marisa Fappiano
Email: mkf@uconect.net
School/University/Affiliation: Saint Joseph College
Date: November 18, 1998

Grade Level(s): 1

Subject(s):

Language Arts/Story telling

Objective(s): By the time this lesson is completed, students will be able to:

Sequence story events and days of the week, according to the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Individually demonstrate comprehension by retelling The Very Hungry Caterpillar story through an individually created book.

Materials:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar , by Eric Carle
Days of the week written on 5×8 or 3×5 index cards
Food cards, including all foods mentioned in the book
One ditto for each day of the week, showing each letter of the word, scrambled, in a box to cut out. A clue will also be given at bottom of ditto (Ex: Monday- a picture of one apple).
Paper, crayons, scissors, glue, pencils

Set/ Initiation:

Have students sit together on the floor in a group. Stimulate discussion by asking questions relevant to the topic and class activities. For example:

Does everyone remember how we use our calendar in class each morning so we know what month it is, what day of the week it is and what the date is? Who knows what the days of the week are? What day of the week is today?

Do you think that each day we do things in an order? ( get up in the morning, brush our teeth, eat breakfast, etc.)

Who can tell us what order they did things in today? What happens in this classroom each day we come in to school?

Do you think that everyone has an order to how they do some things each day? What about animals? Do they have an order? What do you think a caterpillar does each day? What types of food do you think they eat each day? Do you think they have breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner like we do?

Tell students that today they are going to learn more about the days of the week by reading about a very special caterpillar and his order of events during the week. Show the students the book, preview each page together and ask them questions about what they think is going to happen in the story. Read the story and discuss what happened to the caterpillar on each day, focusing specifically on what he ate. Procedure:

After discussing the book ask students if they know a good definition for the word order. Discuss the words first, second, last etc. and what the order of the book was. Show the students the days of the week and food cards. Tell them that they will be divided into groups and will put the days of the week cards in the order they think they belong. Tell them they will also put the food cards under the days of the week cards showing what the caterpillar ate each day. After the students complete this activity, bring the group back to focus by calling on different groups to tell the others how they arranged their cards. Teacher should then tell the group they must work together to complete another activity. Dittos with scrambled letters should then be passed out to groups. Students will be told that they are to work together to cut out the letters, use the clues on the bottom of each ditto to put the letters in order and once they have each word formed, put the words in the order they belong. They will then glue them to paper.

Closure:

Bring students back to a group and have groups bring their paper with the words glued on. Summarize the activity, thus far, by calling on the groups to discuss the term order, the order of the days of the week and the order of the food in which the caterpillar ate. End this part of the lesson by telling the students that sometimes we use time to help us schedule our order of events during the day and that tomorrow we will be talking a little about time ( The Grouchy Ladybug, by Eric Carle would be a nice connection). Then tell them that they will now be doing one last activity with the hungry caterpillar. Tell them they will be making their very own Hungry Caterpillar books by writing the story the way they remember it and drawing their own hungry caterpillar and the food he ate.

Evaluation:

The teacher will continuously monitor the students while they are completing group tasks. Teacher will also monitor participation during group discussions. Books created during evaluation activity will also allow teacher to assess students individual ability through a story retelling sheet (adapted from retelling sheet created by L.M Morrow) and decide on follow up activities. Please email me for a copy of the retelling sheet I have created for this lesson @ mkf@uconect.net.

Evaluation Activity: Students will be given paper, crayons, and pencils and told to write The Very Hungry Caterpillar story the way they remember it. Tell them to include which day of the week it is on each page and what their caterpillar is eating that day. Students will most likely write using invented spelling but allow them to use days of the week cards for assistance.

Want to Help Fellow Teachers?

Table of Contents