Literature in English: The very hungry caterpillar

Literature in English: The very hungry caterpillar

Story:

« Objetives:

- Enjoy a classic story. The very hungry caterpillar by Eric Carle, and learn more abaut caterpillars.

- Understand the importance of good nutrition to grow healthy.

«  Contents

·         Linguistic exponents:

o   Days of the week.

o   Fruit and food: junk food, healthy food.

o   Adjectives: little, tiny, big, hungry, warm, sick, fat.

o   Cocoon, caterpillar.

o   On (Monday) he ate through…

o   But

·         Language practice:

o   Discuss about healthy or junk food.

o   Discuss about nutrition.

o   Tell the story with the help of a puppet.

«  Timing: 10 to 12 lessons.

«  Tasks

1.      Stage:

- Teacher interacts with students using the following questions to introduce the topic; what insects do you know? What do insect eat? What insect do you know that undergoes a metamorphosis? (To introduce caterpillar)

- Teacher mimes being hungry and asks students: What do you feel like eating when you are hungry?

- Teacher stars narrating the story and stops after:  “… on Wednesday, he…”, and elicits what students imagine it ate that day (following the pattern, they should suggest: four + fruit). Students go on suggesting food items until they guess.

- Go on with the story and stop after telling what it ate on Friday, and interact with students: Do you like fruit? Do you think fruit is healthy? Do you eat fruit during the week?

- Students make their own caterpillar sticking bottle caps on sheet of paper

2.      Stage:

- Retell the story, give students flashcards with the different food items and stick on the board a cardboard with the day of the week. They will come to the front and stick the flashcards under each day. The cardboard will be used later as a mind map of the story for students to retell it.

- Ask students: What do you eat weekends?

- Read what the caterpillar ate on Saturday, ask students: Is it healthy food or not? Do you feel sick when you eat a lot? Do caterpillars really eat this kind of food? What does he look like after all he ate?

- Make students draw a picture of the caterpillar after eating all the food.

- Students stick all the food he ate under the heading Saturday on the cardboard.

3.      Stage:

- Students compare in two columns healthy food and junk food. Ask them follow-up questions such as: Which food should you eat less frequently? Do you like fast food? Why/not? How often do you eat it? Why is it so popular? Who usually does the cooking in your family? Do you help with the cooking? Do you know any famous cook? Do you enjoy cooking? What´s your favorite dish?

- Make them aware of the importance of good nutrition to grow up healthy.

4.      Stage:

- A volunteer comes to the front of the class and his classmates wrap him up toes upwards with toilet paper. Then, ask: What does he look like? Wait for the answer and introduce cocoon.

- Go on with the story and ask: What is he going to become? Is the butterfly going to be very hungry, too?

- Game: Retell the story and stop at different stages for students to go on. Do this according to what you want you want them to practice: the lexical items grammar.

5.      Stage:

- Lead a discussion using the days of the week: What is your favourite day of the week? Why? When do you have English lessons? When do you practice sports? What do you do at weekends? Do you have special days?

6.      Stage:

- Students make a fruit salad with ingredients from the story: Caterpillar salad:  1 apple, 2 pears, 3 plums, 4 strawberries, 5 oranges.    

- They share the salad at a picnic.

7.      Stage:

- Give students food flashcards, a finger puppet of the caterpillar, and ask them to come to the front and tell the story in groups of three or four. Leave the mind map displayed to help them remember.

     Note: You can give and old glove every 5 students to make finger puppets cutting out and drawing faces, so that each student can have his or her own puppet.  
  

8.      Stage:

- Write the following sentence on the board: He ate through five oranges but he was still hungly.

- Focus on “But” and say the following stategements for students to finish them with opposite ideas: He slept 19 hours but… (they could suggest he was still sleepy or tired), He drank 2 bottles of water but… He played a lot of games with his friends but… He wore a lot of warm clothes but…

     Note: The stages could take a different number of lessons according to the group, their characteristics and ages.

Resource: http://www.slideshare.net/davidsantos/the-very-hungry-caterpillar-2415686