A House for Hermit Crab Free Unit Study and Lapbook

Author/Illustrator: Eric Carle
ISBN: 0689848943
Summary: Hermit Crab moves out of his small shell on the sea floor, in search of a new residence. When he finds a bigger place, a sea anemone offers to move in with him; a starfish agrees to decorate the joint. A snail and a sea urchin are employed for cleaning and protection, a lantern fish for lighting and smooth pebbles are used for a wall. Hermit lives happily for a while, until it is time to move again, to a still larger place.

Different Types of Homes/Houses
A house is a place where someone (or something lives).
Discuss different types of animal houses with your young student.
A Hermit Crab lives in a shell. Where does a bear live? a bird? a bee? a fox? (discuss other animals, too).
A fun book to read together would be Usborne's Animal Homes (a lift the flap learner).

A fun project to do together-- My House
Give your student a large sheet of white paper. Brainstorm together about what the inside of your house looks like. How many rooms (upstairs and down). Draw the frame of the house (it doesn't have to be exact-- you may not be able to get every room in). Using magazines and catalogs, find pictures of beds, toilets, stoves, tables, chairs, carpet, curtains (you could also use scrap fabrics, sample carpets, and sample wallpaper books for this!) and cut them out. Glue the pieces down to resemble your house. Discuss your student's favorite room and what he likes about his house. After you finish the project, take some time out to pray and thank God for the shelter He has provided for you.

Your older student may enjoy learning more about the different kinds of houses that people around the world live in. Some people live in huts, others igloos, others tents! Read A House is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman together and discuss all the different kinds of houses.

Lapbooking Component: Different Houses (use this file to make your own book-- see lapbook example)

More books you may want to check out from the library
Houses and Homes by Ann Morris
Homes and Houses Then and Now (Usborne Flip Flaps)
This is My House by Arthur Dorros
Houses by Marcia Fries
This is My House by Richard Scarry
Homes Around the World by Bobbie Kalman
Your very young student may enjoy continuing the discussion on houses with a reading of The Three Little Pigs (houses of straw, sticks, bricks)

Hermit Crab had to find a new house. Has your student ever experienced moving into a new house? What were some of Hermit's feelings (he felt safe/snug in his old shell; he was frightened when he had to move out). Discuss feelings one may have when having to move.

Learning Your Address
If you are discussing houses and homes (or moving) this week, it may be a good time for your student to learn his address (if he hasn't already done this).
Lapbooking Component-- My Address

Making Friends
How does the hermit crab make friends with all the sea creatures he meets? He compliments them first and then asks for their help. Proverbs tells us that if we want friends, we have to be friendly! You may want to discuss a time when your student made a new friend. You may also want to memorize Proverbs 18:24a this week. “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly…”

Bible: Luke 6: 47-49
You may want to read and discuss this passage of Scripture with your student this week:

Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Make a list of commands (sayings) that God has given us. Are we simply to know His commands? No, we are to DO them. If we do His commands, we are like the wise man. If we choose to ignore God's commands, we are like the foolish man who did not have a foundation under his house. When the storm came, his house was wiped away.

Lapbooking Component: Wise Man/Foolish Man Flap Book

prickly- covered with small sharp points or a sharp pointed part that sticks out

If you student is ready, direct his attention to the different words Eric Carle used for each of the sea animals as they answer the crab. Instead of using “said” each time, he uses many different phrases for variety—

(later, when the animals are speaking again, Carle only uses the word said once; he also uses murmured, complained, and cried)

Description
Look at the illustration of the seaweed forest. The sea creatures use many different words to describe it—

dark, dim, gloomy, murky, like nighttime. What other words can you and your student think of to describe the picture?
Lapbooking Component: Seaweed Forest (list your adjectives inside)

“Little by little, over the year, Hermit Crab had grown”
Print a copy of this Prepared Growth Chart (it uses the twelve months, so you can tie it in with the other math lesson). Record your student’s weight and height each month for one year. If you have record of weight and height from other ages (even when your student was born), make up some math problems using the data. “When you were born you weighed about 9 pounds, now you weigh 42 pounds. How much weight have you gained since birth?”

Months of the Year
All twelve months are mentioned throughout this story. Does your student know the months of the year? Practice saying and writing them in order this week.

Using a white piece of paper, draw twelve (or thirteen) boxes or divide it into twelve (or thirteen) sections. In the top of each section have your student write the name of a month (do this in order starting with January). Have your student draw his own illustration (based on the happenings in the story) for what happened each month--

January - Hermit Crab outgrew his shell
February- Found a new (plain) shell
March- Met the sea anemone
April- Met the starfish

May- Discovered some coral
June- Came to a group of snails
July- Came upon sea urchins

December- Gave his shell away to a smaller hermit crab
January (of the next year)- Found a new *larger* shell

Activity adapted from www.ericcarle.com

You can extend this lesson into handwriting (and a memory game). I made these month cards and let my son write in the words (HWOT font). Then, he cut them out and put them in a pocket in his lapbook. We use the cards for review to see if he can put the months of the year in order. Print the cards on cardstock if you have it handy.
Month Cards with traditional handwriting print
Blank Cards

Science

Different Types of Crabs
Read the note by Eric Carle on the dedication page for some basic information on Hermit Crabs.

Hermit Crabs have the word crab in their name, but they are not considered true crabs.

True Crabs
True crabs have an exoskeleton—an outer shell—that protects and provides support. They also have five pairs of legs (ten total); one pair—the claws—are used for grasping. They use these legs to walk sideways. (For a fun P.E. lesson this week, teach your child the crab walk). Some crabs live in the ocean, and some crabs live on land. There are about 4,500 different kinds (or species) of true crabs! Additionally, there are about 500 different kinds of Hermit Crabs.

Hermit Crabs
Hermit Crabs also have ten legs. Even though they are considered crustaceans (as are true crabs), they are different than a regular old crab. Hermit Crabs do not have exoskeletons to protect their soft abdomens, they have to go searching for “homes” (empty seashells) to serve this purpose.

Your older student may wish to do more research in order to compare/contrast true crabs with hermit crabs (a Venn diagram may be a good way to record the research).

Ocean Life
There is a note at the end of the book the main sea creatures mentioned. Here are some additional resources.

Your student could make a booklet using the different Enchanted Learning Printouts/Coloring Pages listed below.

Sea Anemones
Enchanted Learning Printout

Sea Weed
Seaweed is not really a weed, but it is algae. It is found in the water, but it is not a true plant. Many kinds of seaweed are edible and commonly found on the table in Asian countries. Seaweed is rich in vitamins and iodine. Three main groups of seaweed are: green, brown, and red.

Like other plants, seaweed use sunlight to produce food. However, they are not considered true plants because they do not have roots, stalks, leaves, flowers, or fruit. Instead of roots, seaweed have bases or finger-like disks that enable them to stick to the roughness of rocks. These finger-like discs are not like roots (which enable a plant to pick up substances). This is not a problem for seaweed, though, because seaweed gets all the minerals it needs directly from the sea water.

Your older student may enjoy learning that seaweed is actually found in all types of our food. Look at labels of the food you buy to see if any of the "seaweed" ingredients are listed:

Parts of Seaweed Booklet from Highland Hitcho

Shells
This book is a great opportunity to discuss shells and their inhabitants. We used a book What Lives in a Shell to discuss these things. We also had a fun article in Your Big Backyard (July 2007) that helped us learn the different kinds of shells.

Lapbooking Component:
Shells Layered Book
Shells Layered Book with HWOT letters

Discuss the technique of collage with your student using the illustrations in the story. Try to make some collage type paintings like Eric Carle. Give your student a large piece of white paper. Use bright color tempera paint and cover the paper in the color of choice leaving texture (making the brush strokes noticeable) in the paint. Let your student do this with a few different colors using one color per piece of paper. Set aside paintings to dry. After the painting is dry, cut pieces from the paper to create a sea creature. Glue down the cut pieces on white paper.

You could also replicate your student's favorite illustration from the story. (Note: when we study Eric Carle books at our house, we usually replicate the cover page.)

Here is a link that will help your student Draw a Hermit Crab

Just for Fun

Decorate a Crab Shell
Have your student draw a shell for Hermit Crab (or draw one for him) and then decorate with-- jewels, sequins, feathers, mosaic paper tiles, stickers, stamps, dried pasta, whatever else you can think of! (You could put this on the cover of your lapbook.)

Read another under-the-water adventure by Eric Carle—Mister Seahorse

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