March 4 - 8; Eric Carle's Hungry Caterpillar

It felt so nice to have one strong focus point this week. We studied Eric Carle's book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". There were new things we learned each time we read the book. We worked on sequencing the items the hungry caterpillar ate and discussed the life stages of a caterpillar. First the egg, then the caterpillar, then he gets fat, makes a cocoon, and then at the end, turns into a beautiful butterfly.

Some Eric Carle inspired activities we did this week were:

Each child filled in with "writing" what their hungry caterpillar might eat. Then drew a picture to accompany. We will have this book for you next week (except if we have a snowday friday!). We'll keep it near the fish, so you can find your child's page and check it out.

We did some caterpillar math. Some students used round counters while other used circle stickers to count. There were numbers in front of our caterpillars then corresponding circle outlines. Kids practiced counting the circles then took a look at the number. I'm hoping the afternoon class learned some number recognition in the process and for the morning class, they just solidified their counting skills.

We practiced writing our names on our very own constuction paper hungry caterpillar cut out. For the morning class, many of them are just beginning to independently write their names (some letters might need a creative eye to be seen!) and some of them are still practicing with hand over hand help (a teacher places their hand over the childs hand to help them form muscle memory of how the letters of their name are formed). We will hang them up on the wall for parents to see.

Using pictures of the foods the caterpillar ate, we worked in groups to sequence the book. For example, the caterpillar ate one apple first, then two pears, then three plums, four strawberries, five oranges, then a whole bunch of sweets, and finally a leaf to settle his stomach.

We also used our finger prints to make a hungry caterpillar. We then found pictures of food to glue next to our caterpillar to show what he might eat.

Next week, we will continue to look at some Eric Carle books and sequence a variety of stories.
Mrs. Reid