The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We are learning about life-cycles so we decided to read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle.

As a math extension activity we created our very own nibbled leaves.  The kiddos LOVED this activitiy.

Equipment

• brown, yellow and green construction paper (1 back ground and ten leaves per child)
• hole punchers
• markers and glue

I made the backgrounds by cutting out and gluing the vines to the yellow paper.  I also cut out the leaf shapes ahead of time.

Process

• The children wrote the numbers 1-10  on their leaves (1 on one leaf, 2 on the next leaf etc)
• Then they used the hole punches and punched the corresponding number of holes on each leaf.
• When they were done the children glued their leaves onto the vine.  (I did not tell them they had to put them in number order but many of them did so)
• When the vine was completed the children dictated a story to go along with it.
• While the children were working we talked about the story that we had read and what the caterpillar ate.  We also talked about the butterfly life-cycle.

Skills

• counting with cardinality
• reading and writing numbers
• ordering numbers from 1 to 10
• using a hole punch
• developing hand muscles strength
• gluing
• recalling or retelling the events in a story