The Very Hungry Caterpillar Free Unit Study

Math: Days of the Week
This book lends itself as the perfect opportunity for teaching days of the week! You can use Eric Carle's Today is Monday book to sing the days of the week. You can also use this fun song:

Days of the Week
to the tune of the Adams Family theme song
Days of the week (snap, snap)
Days of the week (snap, snap)
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week (snap, snap)
There's Sunday and there's Monday
There's Tuesday and there's Wednesday
There's Thursday and there's Friday
And then there's Saturday
Days of the week (snap, snap)
Days of the week (snap, snap)
Days of the week, days of the week, days of the week (snap, snap)

Sequence and Counting Cards
Before this activity, you need to print a set of sequence cards (links below) and write the days of the week on index cards

After reading the story, discuss the word sequence. Ask your student, what day did the story start? What day did it end? What happened on Monday? Ask your student to put the days of the week in order. Then, ask him to match the days of the week with the food that was eaten on that day. (For a younger child, you may just want to put the foods in order). You can also use the food for counting exercises. If you student is writing, you may want to have him complete this sentence (after he completes the sequencing activity)-- "On________________, he ate______________, but he was still hungry."

Sequence Cards

Language Arts List Making (and a Picnic Idea!)
Let your student make a list of all the things the caterpillar ate.
If you want, make a picnic lunch out of the same items (just be sure not to get a stomach-ache!)

Pickle
Swiss Cheese
Salami
Lollipop
Cherry Pie
Sausage
Cupcake
Watermelon

You can also use this list to teach alphabetical order.

Drama
Act out the story with these Story Cards from kiz club

Language Arts: Poetry
Using Eric Carle's book Animals, Animals, you will find some poems that match this story
Caterpillar- pg. 19
Butterfly- pg. 12-13, 38

Discussion: Coming out of your cocoon
What does it mean "to come out of your cocoon?"
"...when I was a small boy, my father would say, "Eric, come out of your cocoon." He meant I should open up and be receptive to the world around me." Has Eric Carle come out of his cocoon? How?

Science: Stomachaches
What causes a stomachache?
Our stomachs have acid in them to aid in digestion (to break down the foods so our bodies can use them). If there is too much acid in our stomachs, we get a stomach ache. Eating certain foods (or too much of a certain food) can cause the acid.

If your student is ready or if you have an older student following along with this unit, you may want to study the stomach and the digestive system.

Butterfly life cycle mini-book
Butterfly Life Cycle Printable

Order some butterfly larvae and monitor their progress in your nature journals

Science (and Art): What do Butterflies Eat?
Tell your student that butterflies drink nectar from flowers. The pistil acts as a straw for the butterfly to slurp up its food. You can take a flower apart and try to find some nectar at the base. Show your child the straw (pistil). Mention that butterflies are attracted to flowers by their bright colors and scents. Smell some different flowers in your garden (if appropriate).

For a fun project, paint a butterfly garden. Before painting, let your child use some *scented* markers to draw flowers. The flowers will be bright and smell good (just like the ones real butterflies are attracted to). After she draws her flowers, let her paint (tempera or watercolor works fine) trees, a sky, butterflies, bees, etc. for a beautiful butterfly garden.

Science Fun: Pretend to be Butterflies
Go outside (again!); it's time to smell the roses. If you have any party favors (the ones that blow and uncurl), let your student pretend to be a butterfly...collecting nectar from flowers with her new "tongue!" Have fun!

Recipe for Nectar (served in a flower cup!)
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup cranberry juice
1 tablespoon honey
Mix the juices together, and taste first for sweetness before adding honey. Stir the honey until dissolved.

Flower Petal Cup Materials: Scissors, colorful construction paper, measuring tape, large-size plastic cup, tape, plastic drinking straw
Cut a strip of paper that's 3 inches wide and long enough to circle the rim of the cup, plus 1 inch. (Use the measuring tape for this.) On one edge of the strip, cut scallops about 2 1/4 inches long, leaving a 3/4-inch border on the other edge. Shape each scallop into separate petals. Wrap the uncut edge of the petal strip around the plastic cup, and anchor it with tape. Fold the petals out one by one. Then pour in the nectar and serve it with a curly straw.

Science: Design a Butterfly Garden
If it isn't time to plant a garden, you can design one (on paper) to plant in spring/summer.
Here are some flowers that attract butterflies!

Perennials
Bee Balm, Butterfly bushes, Butterfly weeds, Bronze Fennel, and Coreopsis. Butterfly weed is a Monarch host plant meaning that the Monarch will lay eggs on the leaves. The bronze fennel is a Swallowtail "host" plant. The Bee Balm, Butterfly bushes, and Coreopsis are nectar plants that butterflies can drink from.
Annuals
Zinnias, Cosmos, Lantana, Pentas, and Heliotrope

More information

Science: Caterpillar Bug Jug
Prepare a caterpillar home using a small fish tank, a shoebox or milk carton with a hole cut for viewing. Cover the hole with hosiery. Place a small twig or two in the home for it to use during the pupation phase of its life. Take your student for a caterpillar hunt. Look for caterpillars on the leaves and stems of plants. For food, take a supply of leaves from the plant on which you found the caterpillar. Sprinkle the leaves with a little water and keep them in airtight containers in the refrigerator. Or take several small branches of the leaves and place them in water.

Drama/Science
Act out the life cycle of a caterpillar/butterfly �My kids especially liked acting it out (their idea) with blankets for cocoons and wings.�

Health
Discuss the food pyramid. Classify the foods from the story into the food groups. Is the caterpillar eating a balanced diet? What is a balanced diet?

You may want to check-out the butterfly report forms and copywork pages on Homeschool Share's Animal Forms page.

Butterfly Snack
1/4 section of a graham cracker
peanut butter (or tub of frosting)
6 mini pretzel twists

Break graham cracker section into three roughly equal pieces. Spread a small amount of peanut butter onto each piece. Place two pretzel twists on each graham cracker section, two curves outward to form butterfly wings. Eat!

Caterpillar Cocoons
1- 8 oz. tube refrigerated crescent rolls
8 breakfast sausages
1 squeeze bottle yellow mustard

Preheat oven according to directions on the crescent-roll package. Prepare the sausages according to the directions on the package. Remove from frying pan and allow to cool ten to fifteen minutes. Separate the crescent-roll dough into its pre-cut triangle pieces, and lay them flat on an un-greased cookie sheet. Place one sausage on each, squeeze a thin line of mustard on
each. Roll and close all ends. Bake according to package instructions.

Butterfly Salad
2 Pineapple rings
Lettuce leaf
Cottage cheese
Green olives sliced in 1/2
Food coloring
Celery stick

1. Place lettuce leaf onto a paper plate
2. Slice pineapple rings in 1/2 to use a an outline of the butterfly�s wings
3. Use celery stick as the body
4. Place cottage cheese inside of pineapple ring
5. Decorate the cottage cheese with food coloring, pineapple slices and olives

    Butterfly Story by Anca Hariton (the science of metamorphosis)
    Butterfly House by Eve Bunting
    The Lamb and the Butterfly (illustrated by Eric Carle)
    Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert
    Let's Read and Find Out About Science: Caterpillars and Butterflies

Videos: Geo Kids: Tadpoles, Dragonflies, and the Caterpillar's Big Change
The Magic School Bus Butterflies

Materials and information on this website belong to the original composers. It may be used for your own personal and school use.