The Very Hungry Caterpillar
We began our last thematic unit the week after Easter break. This unit will take us all the way to the end of the year (if you can believe it's that time already!).
This last unit is all about Eric Carle...one of my favorite children's authors! Over the course of the next several weeks, we will use several of his popular books to explore insects and other critters. The first on the list: The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
This story lends itself so nicely to retelling and sequencing, so we had several activities that encouraged this skill. From a tiny stuffed caterpillar and a tiny version of the book, to BIG story pieces that the caterpillar could actual "eat", the munchkins had fun reading and retelling this favorite story together.
The munchkins also had fun making their own story pieces and hungry caterpillar (from a Parmesan cheese container). The lid opens like a mouth, so he can eat the story pieces! Now the story can be told at home too!
We sequenced the story in other ways too. Using the pattern of the text, which focused on days of the week, each munchkin cut the items the caterpillar ate and placed them in order according to the correct day.
Some munchkins just enjoyed retelling the story together using our pocket chart.
We used the hungry caterpillar to practice some other skills, too. It was fun to watch the munchkins work through an addition and subtraction practice page. Each segment of the caterpillar's body had a number 1 - 10 on it. The munchkins had to cut and glue a number equation to the segment that had the corresponding sum or difference.
Then of course, we had to do some fantastic writing! Each munchkin had the chance to write his or her own page for a class big book (and I do mean BIG)!
The sentence structure and conventions used by the munchkins was just terrific! Who would believe these are kindergarten writers?
Probably the project that was the most fun was the "longer than long" word caterpillar! Each munchkins created a unique caterpillar by adding body segments that contained words. The only rule? The munchkins had to be able to read each word that was added. Some of the caterpillars were incredibly long! I guess that means we have great readers in our group!
Cutting and gluing...
Getting longer...
And longer...
And longer!
Well...it looks as though we covered some math, some reading and some writing. What about science? This whole unit (from start to finish) is a great way to explore life cycles and insects. So what better way to experience it first hand than to bring in some caterpillars? The munchkins learned all sorts of new vocabulary, like metamorphosis, chrysalis and larvae. And the caterpillars were such fun to watch. They tripled in size in almost a week...amazing!
When we first received them, they were so little!
But by the end, we didn't even need the magnifying glasses.
What will happen next?
We ended the week making two special little caterpillar friends. One was added to the back bulletin board and the other was...
added to our tummies!
Gotta love recipe day!
Next we'll be on to butterflies...
Until next time...
Giggles,
Mrs. D.
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