This lesson plan aims to introduce young students to the short story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. Teachers will show a video of the story, re-tell it using the book and props, and engage students through a caterpillar construction activity and food guessing game. Students will reinforce vocabulary like days of the week and foods, as well as prepositions. An extension suggests expanding the story into a science lesson on the life cycle of caterpillars and butterflies through collaboration with other teachers.

1. PRACTICE II, DIDACTICS OF ELT AND PRACTICUM AT PRIMARY
SCHOOL LEVEL, UNLPam (2014)
Students: Mendez, Yoana and Suarez, Dalma
Lesson Plan: Short Storytelling: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
In chapter 2 Teaching Literature in the Classroom: Fostering Communicative Competence,
Intercultural Awareness and Critical Thinking in Young Learners (Braun, E. 2011), Griselda Beacon
and Ana Maria Cendoya maintain that literary texts provide “rich linguistic input, a trigger for the
development of intercultural competence, effective stimuli for students to express themselves in
other languages and a potential source of learner motivation.”
In connection with stories, they say that they are multi-purposeful: they contribute to “develop
literacy, thinking skills, emotional growth, positive interpersonal attitudes and intercultural
competence.”
Aims:
 To introduce literature in the classroom.
 To engage and motivate students through the use of authentic input.
 To foster the development of cognitive skills through the teaching of narratives and the
way they are built.
 To create a positive, comfortable and anxiety-free environment in which student can share
their opinions and express themselves freely.
 To introduce, revise or reinforce days of the week and food (vocabulary), and prepositions
before, after and between.
Materials: short story, a video, construction paper, craft supplies, glue, scotch tape.
Procedure:
 Show the video (6:30 minutes)
 Re-telling of the story using the book (teacher’s voice, facial expressions and body
language, as well as, flashcards: food).
 Give students paper and glue so they construct their own caterpillars.
 Ask students if their caterpillars are hungry. Ask students to take from a box a flashcard of
a food item (they do not have to show it).

2.  Game: the teacher asks which caterpillars (students) eat e.g. “oranges”, so the students
with oranges stand up and wave their caterpillars.
 Presenting the prepositions posters. Guessing game: Which day comes before Monday?
The students answer back (they have as an aid cards with the days of the week arranged in
order in the wall). If the students answer correctly several times, encourage them to form
the questions themselves and pose those questions to other students.
 Paste their caterpillars and food in the wall under the correct day.
 Ask student to make their own butterflies.
Extension: The short story is about a little caterpillar, which first pops out from an egg, then
becomes a big caterpillar, later wraps itself in a cocoon and finally becomes a butterfly. This story
could be expanded using CLIL. The English teacher could work with the Natural Science teacher
and together teach the cycle of life of caterpillars/butterflies. Students may be ask to produce a
poster with the different stages in the cycle, using pictures, their own drawings, arrows, and
briefly describing the amount of time that each stage lasts.