1-2-3 Come Do Some Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities With Me

My students absolutely love Eric Carle's story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  It's one of my favorites too, and is the inspiration behind the 6 caterpillar craftivities that I'm featuring today.  

First up is The Very Hungry Caterpillar "Story Elements" Dangler. 

The “smile” of the caterpillar says the title of the story.  The circle "body segment" features the characters and setting, with an optional "problem-solution" circle.

Students write a brief description about the beginning of the story on the leaf, something about the middle on the apple, then concluding with the end of the story, which is written on the butterfly.

Add extra 3D pop & pizzazz by giving students two leaves and two butterflies. They fold the leaf in half and glue to one side, and attach the thorax of the top butterfly to the one on the bottom.

I also gave my kiddos a tiny white pom pom that they attached to the leaf with a glue dot, to represent an egg. This way I could also review the life cycle of a butterfly.  The 3D options take just a few minutes and really add the “Wow! factor".

Completed projects look awesome dangling from the ceiling, or hung as a border along the top of a hallway wall. 

Another way you can retell the story is with The Very Hungry Caterpillar Story Telling Slider craftivity.  

There are 2 caterpillar options. Choose one, or give children a choice.  Children color their caterpillar, then color, cut and glue their slider together.

As they pull on the end of the “slider” the various pictures go through the caterpillar’s “tummy window”, so that children can take turns retelling the story to a partner or reading buddy, then take their caterpillar home to share with their family, once again practicing these standards.

Storytelling sliders are also an easy & interesting way to assess comprehension. 

Besides a slider, my students also enjoy practicing this standard with The Very Hungry Caterpillar Story Wheel.

It's a quick, easy & fun way to assess comprehension and practice sequencing, as well as retelling a story.

There are full color patterns to use for centers, as well as a sample to share, plus a black & white pattern, so your students can make their own.     

As a comprehension-assessment tool, and for fine motor practice, another option is to have students cut up the picture sections, then glue them to the blank wheel in the appropriate order.

I've also included "Sequence the Story” Puzzles.  Use the full-color versions for an independent center, and print the black and white pattern, so children can color, cut and arrange their own puzzle.

Besides the picture puzzles, I’ve also included “word slices” so you can practice recognizing the vocabulary for this story.

There are also 2 writing prompt worksheets, where students write what happened in the story, or explain why they’d rather be a butterfly or caterpillar. 

Follow up checking comprehension with The Very Hungry Caterpillar Story Elements worksheet, which can be completed as homework, or tucked in a sub-folder.  

I've included a completed sample, so that you can quickly and easily make an example to share with your students. 

You can also review the story while students practice their grammar skills, with the "Fix The Sentence" packet. 

These 32, caterpillar/butterfly-themed, sentence cards, are also a quick, easy and fun way to review the life cycle of a butterfly.

Students practice rules for appropriate grammar for capitalization and end punctuation. Simply read the cards together as a whole group to practice a lot of sight words as well.

Choose a student to come up and using a dry erase marker, circle letters that should be capitalized and then add end punctuation. (period, question mark & exclamation point).

You can do this on a whiteboard, with a pocket chart or pass one card out to each child to correct.  I've also included a set of mini-cards, so that students can work on the sentences independently. 

Finally, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is perfect for a "Devouring Words & Books" challenge, which will build vocabulary, reading fluency and motivate students to read more.

Run off the caterpillar pattern on a variety of colors of construction paper or card stock, then give students a choice.

A word-apillar can be sight words, word wall words, seasonal vocabulary words, or specific to the life cycle or study of butterflies, with science vocabulary like metamorphosis, chrysalis, proboscis, etc.

It’s also a fun way for students to practice their spelling words, or complete their word work portion of Daily 5.  I’ve provided 2 pattern pages of extra “body segments” so students can make a really long caterpillar. 

Today's FREEBIE is a set of butterfly alphabet cards. There are 3 sets: one has both the upper and lowercase letters on them, as well as a set with each, so you can play Memory Match and "I Have; Who Has?" games.  

Well that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by. Gotta rush as it's my grandson's 6th birthday and we are off to a "Jump" party.

Wishing you a happy and carefree day. 

1-2-3 Come Figure Out Story Elements With Me

Making The Very Hungry Caterpillar Story Dangler is a fun way to help students reinforce their understanding of content, as well as the following Common Core State Standards: L.K.2a, L.K.2b, RF.K.3a, RF.K.3d, RF.1.1a, RL.1.2,W.K.7,SL.K.2, RL.K.2, RL.K.3

The "craftivity" is an interesting way for students to show their ability to retell a story, as well as a gauge for the teacher to see if anyone needs help with comprehension.

The smile is the title of the story, and the circle is about characters and setting. The leaf with the egg on it = the beginning of the story, the apple = the middle of the story, and the 3D butterfly = the end of the story.

After reading the story, review concepts of print with your students. Discuss who the characters are, where the setting takes place, as well as what happens in the beginning, middle and end of the story.

When students can identify the important events from the beginning, middle and end of a story, their reading comprehension and writing ability improves.

This knowledge helps a reader understand how organization, sequence, and plot make a good story, so they hopefully will include it in their own writing.  (It's been said that "Good readers are also good writers.")

Here's How To Make The Hungry Caterpillar Dangler:

Cut lengths of yarn for each child. So they don’t get knotted, fasten them to a paper plate with a bottom and top slit cut out. Lay the yarn between the slits.

Make the eye, nose and antennae templates by cutting out the patterns and tracing them on an old file folder.

Older students can trace and cut out their own pieces, but it really expedites things for little ones, if these are already pre-cut by a room helper.

Run off the body parts on construction paper. To save paper, each child gets one body part. To hang them together simply run a piece of yarn across the back and tape each section to it.

I like the more finished 3D look of giving children two of each body section. To attach, they flip their pieces over and put them in a line with ½ an inch of space between them.

Children rub glue on the back, lay the yarn on top and then glue the other half over it. I wanted the leaf to be 3D, so I only glued half of the leaf together, and let the other half stick out.

To represent a butterfly egg, I fastened a mini white pom pom to the right side of the leaf with a glue dot. I also wanted to make the butterfly 3D, so I folded the wings up on either side of the thorax.

Rub glue on just the thorax area and press the other thorax over it. Fluff the wings and they will look like the butterfly is flying.

Pass out the pieces to the children. They fill in the information and assemble their Story Dangler. Punch a hole in the top of the head and make a yarn loop.

If you want to cover even more standards, have students add another circle or make a heart to tell why they liked or did not like the story, or compare this story to another caterpillar or butterfly story and state which one they liked better.

These look adorable hanging from the ceiling (if you have front and back pieces) or hung in a row on the wall if you used Scotch tape.

Click on the link to view/download The Very Hungry Caterpillar Story Dangler.  Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.

For another Very Hungry Caterpillar activity, scroll down to take a look at the next blog article.

"Garbage in, is garbage out! Pay attention to what you read, listen to, and watch." -Unknown