SHARED READING 1

Title: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Author: Eric Carle

Illustrator: Eric Carle

Grade Level: Kindergarten

State Standard:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.3
With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.10
Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.6
Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

WIDA Standard:

Level 1: Identify characters.

Level 2: List items the caterpillar ate on each day of the week.
Level 3: Compare and contrast the type of food the caterpillar ate Monday through Friday with
the food eaten on Saturday and Sunday.
Level 4: Interpret why the caterpillar had a stomachache on Saturday.
Level 5: Evaluate a time in your life when you have eaten too much and gotten a stomachache
just like the caterpillar.

Behavior Standards:

Ears open and eyes watching

Keep our hands to ourselves and in our laps
Gentle hands with the manipulatives, returning them in the same shape we received them
OCEAN WAVE behavior traits, especially teamWork.
Raising hand to ask and answer questions
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DAY 1
Materials:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Book

Sequencing cards
Whiteboard and whiteboard pens

Performance Target

Before Reading:

Introduction of title and author Read the story

During Reading:

School District does not promote activities or questioning during a story as it interrupts the
fluidity of the story and overall comprehension. The contribution of the students during my
initial presentation of the story was in concert with my reading.

After Reading:

Identify the items the caterpillar ate during the week and properly correspond those items
with the day of the week.
Re-read section of story with food and days of the week as a group

DAY 2
Materials:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Book

Phonics Cards
Pocket chart
Pictures of food items

Performance Target

Before Reading:

Introduction of title and author Read the story

During Reading:

School District does not promote activities or questioning during a story as it interrupts the
fluidity of the story and overall comprehension.

After Reading:

Activating background knowledge: Recalling our ZooPhonics letter sounds and motions
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Use the patterns of the foods from the story. Using pre-made cards with the beginning
letters (a, p, p, s, o, c, i, p, s, s, l, c, s, m, w) of the foods (apple, pears, plums, strawberries,
oranges, cake, ice cream, pickle, swiss cheese, salami, lollipop, cherry pie, sausage, muffin,
and watermelon. Students will work as a team, to match the beginning sound to the picture
of the food.
To increase difficulty, place your food patterns in a pocket chart, say a sound, and then pick
a student to come up and take one food item that matches the given sound

DAY 3
Materials:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Book

Tracing worksheets
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Video

Performance Target

Before Reading:

Introduction of title and author Read the story

During Reading:

School District does not promote activities or questioning during a story as it interrupts the
fluidity of the story and overall comprehension.

After Reading:

Complete the tracing worksheet while playing the video version of The Very Hungry
Caterpillar
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DAY 4
Materials:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Book

Sequencing cards of the caterpillar-to-butterfly life cycle

Performance Target

Before Reading:

Introduction of title and author Read the story

During Reading:

School District does not promote activities or questioning during a story as it interrupts the
fluidity of the story and overall comprehension.

After Reading:

Activating background knowledge: What types of changes do we undergo as we grow up?

What types of transformations does the caterpillar make?
Use patterns of the life cycle of a butterfly and have students practice sequencing them.
Cards include (little egg on leaf, little caterpillar on leaf, larger caterpillar on ground, very
large caterpillar on big leaf, other leaves nearby that have been eaten, caterpillar building a
cocoon, caterpillar inside of a cocoon, butterfly emerging from a cocoon, and butterfly
flying away)

DAY 5
Materials:

Pipe cleaners, coffee filters, tempra paint, paint brushes, egg carton
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Book

Performance Target

Before Reading:

Introduction of title and author Read the story

During Reading:

School District does not promote activities or questioning during a story as it interrupts the
fluidity of the story and overall comprehension.

After Reading:

Craft project: Create a caterpillar and butterfly

o To make a caterpillar:
Use discarded egg cartons, pipe cleaners, paints or markers
Cut apart a carton to make a six-hump caterpillar
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Paint the carton including a face on one end

Poke two holes for antennae and insert pipe cleaners
o To make a butterfly:
Use basket shaped coffee filters, paints, pipe cleaners
Fold the filter in half, then open it again
Drip paint on the center fold. Let it spread and dry
Pinch the filter in the center, then wrap a pipe cleaner around it to be the
butterfly's body

**This is a five day lesson plan, I taught only Days 1 and 3.

Reflection

When readers engage during shared reading, the teacher acts as the lead vocalist singing the national
anthem, and the children are the crowd. They have strong guidance and support that help them feel that
they sing just like the teacher

- Uribe & Nathenson-Mejia

I have performed multiple literacy and reading lessons with the two kindergarten students with

whom I have conducted the shared reading assignment. I work with both students, in Kindergarten,

two days a week for thirty minutes each in the area of literacy in a pull-out special education classroom.

They have become quite accustomed to beginning the lesson with reading a book. I typically preface

read alouds with questions meant to warm them up for the ideas and concepts that will be provided in

the story. Instead, I simply told them we were reading a story, The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

One of the students recognized the book immediately and preceded to tell us how he had read it

before. I had hoped for and anticipated their familiarity with the text, as the subject matter of the text

should be accessible and interesting to listeners (Fountas & Pinnell, 2011). I began the reading and not

to my surprise the students quickly picked up on the phrase, but he was still hungry. This text was

intentionally chosen because of the repetitive nature of the sentences and the predictable patterns,

including following the days of the week and the number of food items consumed. My intentionality
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behind this selection was guided by the selecting texts continuum and ensuring the ability to easily

make predictions based upon the text from the selecting goals continuum (Fountas & Pinnell, 2011).

By Tuesday, the second day in the book, I would read what the caterpillar ate, say, but... and they

would reply he was still hungry! By the next page, also the next day I would read, on Wednesday the

caterpillar ate I would then point to the pieces of fruit one at a time wherein they began to count,

they would reply three plums. After they read that portion I would reread the sentence, on

Wednesday he ate three plums, but, followed by their very excited, he was still hungry! This easily

became a rhythm for the following pages.

By the time we reached Saturday, the day the caterpillar ate a large amount of varying food, I would

point to the food and say, for example one..(pointing to the lollipop) and they would reply with the

name of the food. After reading the list of foods the caterpillar had eaten through that day, the boys

responded with, but he was still hungry. I had to correct them and instead read that the caterpillar had

a stomachache. I can see how easily they began to fall into the pattern of following up the foods the

caterpillar ate with, and he was still hungry. They recognized that on Sunday when he ate through one

nice green leaf that the pattern ceased. I immediately reflected on this, wondering if it had something

to do with the rhythm of the text and the way I was reading it. As we moved though the days of the

week I realized I had maintained the same rhythm and tone of voice, perhaps cueing them as to the

words to follow. This pattern recognition may also have been a result of previous exposure to the text.

In any event, it became a highly interactive affair. This observation was grounded in the notion that

shared readings provide an initial structure and support for readers and over time the teacher can

release more and more responsibility to the students (Nathenson-Mejia & Uribe, 2008).

At the conclusion of our reading I provided each student with a set of fruit and junk food that the

caterpillar ate throughout the week. On a hand held white board I wrote the days of the week in

chronological order. My next direction was for them to place the fruit the caterpillar ate on the
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corresponding day, and retell that portion on the story without my prompting, for example, the

students would say, on Monday he ate one orange and place the orange in the Monday section.

Working together and with no interference from me, both boys quickly and accurately staged their

items. In order to check our work, I reread the pages referencing the food items and day of the week,

instructing them to read with me and to check the fruit they placed on the whiteboard. See attached

pictures. As I reread the passages I read less and let them read more, they were able to read the day of

the week, the number and type of fruit, and that the caterpillar was still hungry!

How did you monitor and adjust instruction in the moment to meet the needs of your students?

Both boys proved difficult to focus at first and required a reminder of our classroom rules. I decided to

start with a brain break and told them to get up and shake out their wiggles while reminding them that

after we get our wiggles out we have to sit down with hands in our lap and our ears open. This seemed

to do the trick and we began the story without any further behavioral issues.

What would you attribute to your teaching that supported student learning (and didnt support

learning?)

The sequencing activity not only meets an important state standard, it also serves to build reading

comprehension skills. Sequencing is a tool that students can utilize to ensure comprehension even if it

is not required or used in the classroom. It is a skill that will serve them well on the litany of

standardized assessments they will take throughout their educational career. Additionally, while I did

not teach the phonics lesson of this unit, the exercise in itself is vital in the building of students literacy

skills.

The tracing activity while I initially felt was a weaker portion of this unit I realized the importance of

building fine motor skills in tracing and writing development. In watching the students complete the

tracing activity I realized how difficult some of the patterns were for some of them. One of the students
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is working on appropriate pencil grip and when he is being gracious will allow us to provide him with a

pencil grip. The way in which he holds his pencil affects the angle of his letters and numbers. I was glad

to have enacted this portion of the lesson because it gave me an opportunity to visualize how important

it is to build these skills at their age and grade.

What were your challenges and how did you navigate them?

As I stated above, I was initially challenged by behavior issues. I hesitate in calling it behavior issues

because they are in kindergarten and being active and chatty is innate in their age and grade so it is

difficult and in some way inaccurate for me to refer to them as issues. Instead, I adjusted how I was

viewing their actions and decided to use a fun and active way to refocus their attention as opposed to

shutting down their energy and dictating the rules.

How did this unit/lesson address issues of equity, social justice, and cultural responsiveness? What

else might you do?

Because I have worked with these students before in all previous anchor experiences, I still have

difficulty in answering this question. Both students are monolingual English speakers so ELL supports

were not required. The lack of this requirement outright does not necessarily preclude me from

introducing new language, such as the Spanish text for the days of the week, but because I have a

working understanding of their backgrounds and cultures I did not feel it was necessary.

How would you adjust your teaching based on all this information?

Because these students are especially active which can contribute to issues in completing work and

focusing, sometimes behaviors inherent to their respective disabilities, I should have incorporated more

movement. In hindsight, after the tracing activity, it would have been fun to allow them to make the

same patterns with their bodies, such as dancing at a zig-zag across a pattern taped to the floor that
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matches the pattern on the tracing sheet. I need more exposure to and experience with incorporating

movement into my lessons.

Figure: Sequencing activity

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References

Pinnell, G., & Fountas, I. (2011). The continuum of literacy learning, grades PreK-8: A guide to
teaching (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Uribe, M., & Nathenson-Mejia, S. (2008). Literacy essentials for English language learners:
Successful transitions. New York: Teachers College Press.