1-2-3 Come Feed The Very Hungry Caterpillar With Me!
Because Eric Carle’s story, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” lends itself to “feeding” a caterpillar, I designed “Mr. Munch” as a quick, easy and super-fun way to review not just the story, but all sorts of standards!
“My caterpillar’s hungry. His name is Mr. Munch. He likes to eat all sorts of things, especially for lunch”. Is the poster poem I start the lesson with.
After reading the story, I pass out the life cycle of a butterfly cards, as well as the food cards to my students.
My Y5s absolutely love sequencing and retelling the story “feeding” Mr. Munch, as they drop the cards into his “mouth” in the appropriate order.
Simply attach the caterpillar pattern to the top of a Kleenex box, or large, ZipLock Baggie.
There are 2 caterpillar head options, with 3 size choices.
I included a small, 4-on-a-page size, so students can make their own very hungry caterpillar, which they attach to a ZipLock Baggie.
This is an inexpensive and fun way for them to practice reading words to a classmate or reading buddy.
Each time they play, run off a different set of word cards on a different color paper.
In the end they’ll have a Baggie full of words that they can read, and a nifty activity to take home for more practice during the summer.
They can also pull X amount of cards from their caterpillar’s “belly” to do the various “word-apillar” worksheets with.
In addition to “feeding” the caterpillar, you can use the cards in a ton of other ways; as the versatility of the cards makes them adaptable for games, centers, and assessing.
I’ve included a tip list of ideas, including my students’ favorite “Kaboom” game, plus 15 worksheets”, which are perfect for Daily 5, table top lessons, a sub folder, early finishers, or homework.
Besides the cards that directly relate to the story (life cycle & food) I’ve also included:
* A set of days of the week cards
* 2D shape cards, with matching shape words, with 13 options.
* Time to the hour and half hour analog clock cards, with a blank set to program with additional times.
* Number word cards from 0-22
* Number cards from 0-140, with a blank set of caterpillar cards to program with more numbers, as well as an odd & even sorting mat.
* Math symbol cards(+ — = < > ), so children can make equations
* A set of ordinal number food cards
* Alphabet cards showing both upper & lowercase letters, as well as separate cards for each.
* Mini word cards for ALL of the Dolch word lists. Each set has its own graphic so they are easy to sort.
* 570 mini, long & short vowel word cards (60 on 1 page) with a sorting mat and sorting cup game.
* Word family cards for 22 word families, with blanks to program more. Plus…
* Butterfly color cards, with matching color words
*“The Caterpillar Creeps” game, plus ...
* Each set of cards comes with a matching “Itty Bitty” booklet.
It took almost a month of work to complete The Very Hungry Caterpillar packet!
However, I felt it was time well spent, as the versatility makes this something you can do throughout the year, hauling out your hungry caterpillar anytime you want to reinforce and practice all sorts of things.
Since Mother's Day is just around the corner, today's FREEBIE is a quick, easy & fun Mother's Day "keepsake" craftivity made with a child's fingerprints.
Here's the poem that's part of the card:
"I've left some little fingerprints on just about every wall. On furniture, doors and windows, I've really marked them all. Here are some that won't rub off, to remember when I was small. Because I'll love you forever, even when I'm big and tall."
Well that's it for today. I have an entire pile of weather activities I want to get done, so it's lucky the current weather is chilly and not providing a temptation to be outside playing in my garden.
Wishing you a stress-free day filled with everything you enjoy the most.
"A Mother's heart is the child's classroom." -Henry Ward Beecher
