#2086. Comprehension through The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Reading/Writing, level: other
Posted Sun Dec 17 20:32:49 PST 2000 by Bethany Nichols (bethany_nichols@hotmail.com).
Materials Required: Calendars, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, presentation board, cut-outs of events, Unscramble worksheet
Activity Time: 45 minutes
Concepts Taught: Comprehension

Lesson Introduction:
For students to develop into successful readers, they must master a number of skills and strategies related to the area of comprehension. Students should understand that stories and plays have a sequence or order that illustrates what happens first, what happens next, and what happens last. Being able to arrange events and ideas in sequential order closely relates to the ability to comprehend a story. The awareness that events occurring in sequential order can be related to each other helps to bring meaning to a story.

Instructional Objectives:
When shown a calendar, the students will identify the days of the week by pointing to the correct day.

PI: The teacher will informally assess the students by their ability to identify the days of the week.

Given sequencing cards, the students will sequence the cards in the correct order and state the order of the cards using the ordinal numbers.

PI: The teacher will informally assess the students by their ability to correctly sequence the cards and by their ability to use the ordinal numbers.

After listening to the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the students will sequence seven events from the story by matching the correct event with the day of the week written on the presentation board.

PI: The teacher will informally assess the student on their ability to correctly sequence the events of the story. An informal assessment will also be done according to the ability of the students to match the food the caterpillar ate with what day it was eaten.

After retelling the story, the students will complete a worksheet where they will unscramble the foods the caterpillar ate throughout the story.

P.I. The teacher will assess the student's ability to correctly unscramble the letters of the food. The words used in the worksheet will be the spelling words for the week.

Lesson Initiation:
The teacher will show a calendar to the students. The teacher will ask the students what the days of the week are (Monday through Sunday). The teacher will ask for a volunteer. The teacher will ask the volunteer what day today is. The volunteer will point to the day of the week it is on the calendar. The teacher will ask the volunteer what days they have school. The student will take his or her seat. The teacher will point to the different days of the week on the calendar and ask the students to identify the days being pointed to. The teacher will give the students sequencing cards. By looking at the picture on the sequencing cards, the students will place the cards in the correct order. As a whole group, the teacher will informally assess the children's abilities to sequence the cards. The teacher will expose the children to ordinal numbers--first, second, third, etc. The teacher will tell the students that they will learn more about the days of the week by listening to a story about a very hungry caterpillar and his order of events during the week. The teacher will show the students the book and ask them questions about what might happen in the story.

Instructional Materials:
ª One calendar for each of the students
ª Sequencing Cards
ª The book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
ª Presentation board
ª Pictures of the different foods that the caterpillar ate
ª Caterpillar and butterfly finger puppets
ª Pictures of a leaf and cocoon
ª Unscramble worksheet for homework

Instructional Activities
After the children match the sequencing cards, the teacher will have the children move to the storytelling center. The teacher will read the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. The teacher will recite the book using a caterpillar and butterfly finger puppets. The teacher will also have cut outs of two different events of the book, the leaf with the caterpillar egg on in and the cocoon the caterpillar makes. While telling the book, the teacher will also have pictures of the food the caterpillar ate. When the food is mentioned, the teacher will hold up the picture of the food and have the caterpillar finger puppet pretend to "eat" the food. When the caterpillar weaves the cocoon at the end of the story, the teacher will hold the picture of the cocoon over the caterpillar. When the butterfly finally emerges from the cocoon, the teacher will have the butterfly finger puppet on her hand. When the teacher is finished with the book, she will ask the students questions about the book. The questions will pertain to the order of the events in the book. The teacher may ask questions such as; What happened first in the story? Or what was the reason the caterpillar got fat? When the discussion about the book is completed, the teacher will have the students work in groups of two and match the food the caterpillar ate with the day of the week he ate it. The students match the food with the day of the week on a presentation board. Cut outs of the different food the caterpillar ate will have Velcro on the back and the students will stick the food on the correct day of the week on the presentation board.

Lesson Summary
When the students have completed the matching the food with the day of the week, they will retell the story to their neighbor, using the presentation board. After the students are finished retelling their own hungry caterpillar story, the teacher will pass out worksheets to the students. The worksheets will be completed for homework. The students will be expected to unscramble the different types of food that the caterpillar ate. The days of the week will be written on the worksheet. There will also be pictures of the types of food the caterpillar ate. Whenever the teacher is finished informing the students of the directions for homework and after all the worksheets are passed out, the lesson will end with the teacher telling the students that sometimes we use time to help us schedule the order of events during the day. The teacher will tell the students that they will be talking about time tomorrow using the book, The Very Grouchy Ladybug, by Eric Carle. The lesson for the next day will be an extension of this lesson.

Lesson Evaluation
Student Evaluation
The teacher will informally assess the students throughout the lesson. The teacher will assess the students on their ability to correctly match the food the caterpillar ate with what day it was eaten on. The teacher will observe how well the students can retell the story as well. The unscramble worksheet will also be used in the assessment. The teacher will look at the ability of the students to correctly spell the food the caterpillar ate. The words on the unscramble worksheet will be used as the spelling works for that week.