How can YOU use Eric Carle's story in your classroom? Here are a few ideas!
The Very Hungry Caterpillar I have used this book in my classroom many times. It really illustrates a retell very well. Students have to remember what the caterpillar eats and on what day. I love how simple the drawings are so that students are not getting caught up in too many details. They can focus on what the caterpillar is eating and how his food continues to grow. This is a great book in the younger grades to use for counting. We know he ate one apple and then how many pairs would come after that one apple? This story is also a lesson story to be used to say everyone changes. You may not feel like you are popular or pretty now, but that is not always how your life will be. This book can be used in so many ways! That shows you that it is great literature.
The Very Grouchy Ladybug This story can be used in talking about prediction. I would love to see the animals that students would guess they realize that the ladybug is talking to a bigger and bigger bug/animal each time. Discussing the unique way that Carle made the pages skinny and bigger as the animals got bigger would be a fun aspect to look at in the classroom. This book would of course be used to discuss behavior. Why does the ladybug want to fight all of these animals and bugs? This would help students examine their own behaviors and maybe ask the same question.
The Very Lonely Firefly I really enjoyed this story because there were people in the story. I am not sure if it makes the story easier to relate for students when there are people in the story instead of animals or insects. The firefly is lost looking for others that are like him. Students can use this as they navigate their way through their playground issues. There are different ways to make friends and sometime you have to just keep looking and looking even when you want to give up. If you don't give up then something will always happen in the end that is positive. As a class we can also look at how sometimes you are disappointed but people have to move past it to continue looking for what you want.
The Very Quiet Cricket The Very Quiet Cricket is a story about a cricket who was not able to make a sound until he finds someone else like himself. This book will be great to use to talk about our education. Sometimes we are just waiting for something to happen before we are able to be as good at math or reading as we want. Not everyone is going to be perfect at everything that they try. That is like this little cricket who is not able to make a sound until he finds what he is looking for, or just until it is his time to shine.
From Head to Toe This book will be great in the classroom to use as a movement selection. Students need a break to get up and move as they continue on their curriculum journey. This book would be wonderful to take a break and enjoy acting like an animal. It would really get the students moving and get their blood flowing again. While we bend our necks like giraffes, we could be practicing our spelling words or calling out nouns to practice. I love to get the students moving around while we learn to focus them again. This book will be wonderful to get students moving around!
10 Little Rubber Ducks This book is primarily a counting book. After the ducks fall off the ship, we count through each duck sequentially. Very young children who happen to return to this book a lot may remember the numbers more easily while working with counting aloud. Beyond this, a theme of the book seems to be adaptation to new environments. While this is closely related to children first coming to school, it could apply to any new type of situation. Everyone has to adapt to something new and potentially scary at some point in their lives, and this story provides a way to initiate that type of discussion.
The Very Busy Spider In this story, the spider must keep focused in order to finish his web. He has a responsibility and must make sacrifices along the way. This leads into a discussion of responsibility and what it means to be responsible. Students could journal and share a time when they had to give something up in order to be successful and keep focused.
Do You Want to be my Friend? The mouse in the story is looking for someone to be a friend. This book could be used when talking about friendship and what being a good friend means. Teachers might choose to make a class chart about what makes a good friend and what does not make a good friend. This establishes class expectations for how students should treat each other.
A House for Hermit Crab This story is partly about growing up and embracing inevitable change. The hermit crab becomes too big for his shell that he has known and loved for so long, and he must go find another. Students could write or talk about how they have handled changes in their lives. These could be little or big changes, and students may want to share how they handled these changes. This could even lead to a larger unit on different ways we have seen change happen through history and how people have reacted (in positive or negative ways) to their world altering.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? Because this book is only partly Eric Carle’s, students could do a comparison on how the author compares to Carle’s normal style. They may make Venn Diagrams pointing to similarities and differences between this book and others of Carle’s they are familiar with. This would lead to thinking about and analyzing text and pictures more closely and in-depth. Teachers may also choose to use this book alongside the similar stories of Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear? and Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you See?, which are also collaborations of Eric Carle and Bill Martin Jr.