Learning Languages with The Very Hungry Caterpillar
For years and years, Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been one of my favorite books for teaching languages to kids. This children’s book has got it all: life cycle of a butterfly, days of the week, a little weather, some counting, lots of foods, simple descriptions, active verbs, and colors. It’s the total contextualized package for thematic teaching and learning.
Some of my fellow language bloggers extraordinaire also enjoy using The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Check out Karen’s post on La oruga muy hambrienta at her Teaching and Learning Spanish blog, and don’t miss Sarah’s post on using The Very Hungry Caterpillar to teach French at Bringing Up Baby Biligual.
A little while back, I wrote an article describing some of the language learning activities I do with The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I had French and Spanish in mind, but the books are also readily available in German and Arabic. You can follow this link to read it:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar: A Children’s Book for Learning French, Spanish, and ESL
Yup, I know this book so well I can recite it from memory. I really can. Then just when I thought I had my “Hungry Caterpillar” unit down pat, I stumbled on an effective new way to teach the story. Here’s how it happened . . .
I have this adorable little puppet named Jacques that I have used since 1990. He was packed in my teaching bag, all ready to go to preschool today to help me teach fruits from the story. But I forgot that my 3 year-old adopted my trusty teaching assistant to be one of his new “babies.” So, I’m teaching away when I make the shocking discovery that Jacques is at home snug in his baby blanket and diaper. I needed a Plan B, and I needed one fast.
I looked down at the carpeting and noticed colorful little dots. We reviewed colors and the children picked out their favorite dot. We pretended to pick one up and put it in our hands. Referring to The Very Hungry Caterpillar book, we learned the word for “egg”. We listened for it to hatch. We said “Bonjour” to our “petite chenilles” (caterpillars.) Luckily, Jacques only takes a bottle, so my son had left me the plastic fruits that correspond to the story: apple, pear, plum, strawberry and orange. We passed each fruit around the circle so that the children could hold it up to their caterpillar and tell it “Eat the orange” or “Eat the strawberry.” Then we’d lean close to hear a little “Merci.” After feeding our little caterpillars, we saw that they had become big and fat. At this point, my son declared that he had eaten his. (Yes, he’s a character. He also insists that his name is Benny Coconut. But I digress . . .) We gently closed our hands together to make a cocoon. Finally, we opened our hands and spread them wide into butterfly wings. We imagined all of the beautiful colors we saw on the wings, and then we set our butterflies free.
The power of imagination. What a simple immersion lesson. Simple, simple, simple. Why didn’t I think of this years ago?
What are your favorite Hungry Caterpillar activities? Have you ever taught something off the top of your head that was better than what you had planned? Feel free to comment!
Amazon sells Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar in English, French, Spanish, German, and Arabic.
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