The Very Hungry Caterpillar by, Eric Carle

Book Genre: Children's picture book (Classic)

Publishing Info: Philomel Books (A division of the Putnam & Grosset Group)
22 pages (225 words)

Awards or honors received: A citation from The New York Times as one of the Ten Best Picture Books of the Year in 1969.

Summary: The book starts of with a caterpillar egg rested on a leaf. On Sunday the caterpillar hatched out of the tiny egg and was very hungry! On Monday he ate through one apple. On Tuesday he ate through two pears but was still hungry. On Wednesday he ate through three plums. On Thursday the caterpillar ate through four strawberries. On Friday he continued his search for food and ate five oranges. The story continues through the week revealing an amazing variety of foods. Full at last, the caterpillar spins a cocoon around himself and starts the process of becoming a butterfly. Finally he nibbles a hole in the cocoon and out comes a beautiful butterfly.

Personal rating and reason for rating: ****Great! This book has easy to read words which makes it good for teaching young children how to read. The book contains colourful illustrations along with different lengths of pages which continually get longer. The story teaches counting to five (using numbers and words), the names of the days of the week, and about different types of food. The caterpillar's diet is a fictional fantasy but the story does introduce the process of the metamorphosis from egg-caterpillar-butterfly in a way that children can understand.

Reading level: 2.6 (Accelerated Reader Level)

Interest level: k-3

Possible Uses of the text in integrated units of study:
This book leads itself to lessons across all academic areas.

Writing: You could complete a flow map of a caterpillar's life cycle. Students would have to label the top of each box. (first-then-next-last) Using inventive spelling write the correct process in each box. Then underneath the four flow map boxes they would have to illustrate each process.

Art Project: You would need to complete this hands on activity in small groups. Take a sheet of white construction paper and draw a line to make four equal boxes. In each box have the children make a tree branch with one or two large leaves. (I would have an example already done so they could copy) In the first box they would write egg and would glue a black eyed bean onto the leaf to represent an egg. On the second box they would write caterpillar and glue a piece of spiral pasta onto the leaf to represent the caterpillar. In the third box that would write cocoon and glue a shell hanging from the leaf to represent the cocoon. In the last box that would glue a bow tie pasta representing the butterfly. Two days prior I would have to die the bow tie pasta with vinegar and food coloring, let soak overnight and then lay out to dry. Students would be able to pick what color butterfly they wanted. This is a hands on activity that would reach every learning style while at the same time teaching the process in a visual manor.

Science: They sell caterpillar metamorphosis kits for $19.95! The company would send a kit and all you have to do it follow the directions and your children can actually watch the process first hand in the classroom. Once all butterflies have hatched you let them go outside. Many more writing activities could be based off this lesson alone! (Prediction writing)

Math: Children could add the different types of food the caterpillar ate. For example: On Monday he ate one red apple and Wednesday he ate three plums, how much fruit did he eat all together?

Potential problems or difficulties: I do not see any potential problems.

I found a printable book on the Internet that children can color, cut and then read. I'm not taking credit for this book, it was found on line through google. Click on link below.

http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/Very_Hungry_Caterpillar_Printable_Booklet.PDF