Kathryn Grundner

March 20th, 2013

Edu 3210
Lesson Plan
Lesson: Sequencing: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Grade Level: Kindergarten

C.C. Standard:

K.RL.2 Key Ideas and Details
2. With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.

Literature: The Very Hungry Caterpillar By Eric Carle

Materials:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle

, Scissors, caterpillar templates

Enduring Understanding: Students will be able to discuss events at the beginning, middle, and
end of the story, and then sequence the events.

Objectives:
1. Sequence story events, according to the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

2. Individually demonstrate comprehension by retelling The Very Hungry Caterpillar story
through an individually created paper bag caterpillar.

Instructional Design
1. Have students sit together on the floor in a group. Stimulate a discussion by asking the
students what a typical school day is like in Mrs. Grundner's classroom. What happens in the
beginning of the day? In the middle of the day? and at the end?
2. Do you think that each day we do things in an order? (Get up in the morning, brush our teeth,
eat breakfast, etc.

3. Who can tell us what order they did things in today?
4. Do you think that everyone has an order to how they do some things each day? What about
animals? Do they have an order? What do you think a caterpillar does each day? What types of
food do you think they eat each day? Do you think they have breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner
like we do?
5. Tell students that today they are going to learn more about a very special caterpillar and his
order of events during the week, but first lets learn more about what it means beginning, middle,
end in a story.
Instructional Input: (Actual teaching)
1. Teacher will talk about how certain words and phrases in a story give clues about whether it is
at the beginning, middle, or end. The teacher will make a list of words on the board and
discusses with the students where these words and phrases would be foundat the beginning,
middle, or end. Another hint that the teacher will tell is that if it's not clearly the beginning or the
end, it's probably the middle. The chart on the board will look like this:

Beginning Middle End
Once upon a time... The next day... They lived happily ever after.
Henry was born... After several months... In the end...

2. Teacher will also discuss the terms first, second, and last. The teacher will explain that these
words can be used to explain the order of a story. The teacher will then add those terms to the
chart on the board.

2. Introduce the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar asking students to really listen to the story
and try to find the beginning, middle, and end. As the teacher reads, pause to identify the parts of
the text. For instance, before reading the first page the teacher will say, "Let's see what happens
at the beginning of the book." When you get to the part where the caterpillar begins to eat you
might say, "Here comes the middle of the story." Finally, as the caterpillar builds his cocoon you
might wonder aloud, "I think this is the ending of the book." After you have read the book, draw
a three-column chart on the board, with the column labels, "Beginning," "Middle," and "End."

Modeling:
Since you are modeling this for students, think aloud while you say something such as, "What
happened at the beginning of The Very Hungry Caterpillar? Well, in the beginning, there was an
egg. The caterpillar was born in the beginning of the story. Let's see. I'll look back at the book to
find out what else happened at the beginning of the story. At the beginning of the story, it was
Sunday."
Record these ideas in the "Beginning" column of your chart.
There was an egg.
The caterpillar was born.
It was Sunday

Guided Practice:

Quick Check of Understanding: Have the students line up at the door. Ask the students who is
at the beginning of the line, have those students raise their hands. Then ask the students who are
in the middle to stand on one foot. Finally ask the students at the end of the line to touch their
nose. Once this is complete have the students back to the carpet.

1. Complete the next part of the chart with students, asking the question, "What happened in the
middle of the story? What happened at the end of the story?"
Beginning: The caterpillar was born and was hungry. Middle: Each day the caterpillar
ate a little more than the day before. End: The caterpillar changed into a butterfly.

2.The teacher will then read a few sentence strip from the story out loud and OUT of order. The
students should realize the mistake and help put the sentence strips of the story in the correct
order from beginning to end.
3. The sentence strips will then be distributed to students as well as the illustrations that go with
it. We will re-read the story and after each event, the teacher will request the correct sentence
strip and illustration be brought up and put into the "Classroom Caterpillar" displayed in the
correct order.
4.Teacher and class will then go over in order what the caterpillar had eaten.
5. Teacher will then tell the class they are going to make their own classroom caterpillars like the
one the teacher has made.
6. The teacher will have already at the tables paper bags, caterpillar pictures, and food. The
students will need to cut around the caterpillar and glue it to the outside of the bag.
7. The teacher will demonstrate first how to cut around the caterpillar and glue it on. The
students will then be instructed to cut around the food pictures, and the teacher will show them
the already cut out examples, she has already used.
Checking for Understanding:
1. Before children go back to their seats, the teacher will have the students give a thumbs up if
they totally understand the beginning, middle and end of the caterpillar story. A thumbs down if
no, they don't understand it at all. And a sideways thumb if they sort of understand, but need
more practice.

Independent Practice:
For independent practice, the students will identify events in the beginning, middle, and end of
the story, by cutting out the foods, and putting them in the "caterpillar bag" in the correct order.
Once they have all the prepared food pictures cut out. They will work with a partner retelling the
story, using the words they have just learned; such as beginning, middle, end, first, second, and
last.

Differentiation of Instruction: The class can be separated into three groups to form
"Beginning," "Middle," and "End" groups. Be specific about where the groups will start and stop
their portions of the story. For instance, the "Beginning" group could start the story with the
caterpillar being born from an egg, and that it started on a Sunday. The "Middle" group could
write about what the caterpillar ate on each day of one week. The "End" group could write about
the caterpillar becoming so full, making a cocoon and then waking up a butterfly. The more
advance students will have the opportunity to begin writing the words of the story, underneath
the illustrations, and the student that may need more assistance will be able to collaborate with
peers in the small group and receive extra scaffolding from the teacher.

Closure: The class will gather back at the rug and listen to certain classmates share their work.
There is a classroom schedule of students who share their work on certain days. The chosen
student will speak loudly and clearly, and once they are done sharing their understanding of the
story, the student will pick from our classroom cheer's and the class will perform that cheer.
Such as "a round of applause" where the class claps in a round circle for three times.


Assessment:

Formative: Observation between the partner sharing, and the classroom sharing time, will allow
me to assess the students to see if they have mastered the sequence of the story.

Summative: To be able to assess student understanding of the sequence of a story, I would
choose a different, familiar book and ask students in guided reading groups to identify the
beginning, middle, and end of that story.


Reflection: The format and preparation of this lesson plan went smoothly. I found all the
extra time to share and discuss with classmates useful and a confident builder. I was inspired to
use the topic of sequencing from one of my field placements this semester. Currently, I am
completing thirty hours in a first grade classroom. When working one on one with students, or in
guided reading groups, way too often I find that, although the student is reading, they are not
comprehending the story. I believe that kindergarten is where the foundation starts and think that
a simple story such as the one I used in this lesson plan, will help the students understand the
importance of reading comprehension. To continue working on sequencing, I know that Eric
Carle has other books that will be useful, and I would be able to explore the topic in a bit more
depth, expanding students' understanding of the concept of sequencing. It's great if a student is
reading letters and words, but it's even better if they are understanding what they are reading.




Bibliography

Carle, E. (1987). The Very Hungry Caterpillar. New York, NY: Philomel Books.
Sequencing: The Hungry Caterpillar (2000). In Teacher Vision. Retrieved February 20, 2013,
from http://www.teachervision.fen.com/skill-builder/lesson-plan/48780.html
The Very Hungry Caterpillar bags (2002). In Teaching Heart. Retrieved March 4, 2013, from
http://www.teachingheart.net/veryhungrycaterpillar.html