The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Summary: The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a children's book intended for children ages five- nine. This story is about a small caterpillar who emerges from an egg and begins eating everything in sight. Finally, it is no longer hungry and no longer small. The big, fat caterpillar builds a cocoon around himself and finally emerges as a beautiful butterfly.

Art Style: In all his books, Eric Carle has created a collage technique, using hand-painted tissue papers, different sized brushes, or his fingers and cuts and layers them to form bright and cheerful images. He also often uses a sponge, burlap or other bumpy material that will create texture in his work.

Personal Thoughts: I believe that The Very Hungry Caterpillar is unique in that it actually has the holes eaten by the caterpillar. Like most of Carle's books, it is illustrated with tissue-paper collages resplendent with color and detail. As a future educator, I find Eric Carle's books to be fun and engaging for young children.

Discussion Questions:

What do you notice that's different about this book?

What do you know about caterpillars? Have you ever seen one? Held one? How did it feel? What happens to caterpillars?

Why do you think the caterpillar is so hungry?

Motivational Activities:

I would have a unit plan on butterflies all planned out. I would start off with reading this story and talking more about the life cycle of a butterfly. I will have my students create their own life cycle of the butterflies with some guidelines from me.

Another activity that I would do is cross curricular. I would teach the students a math lesson based off of what the caterpillar ate Monday- Sunday and how many food items he ate. After that lesson, I would have the students create a type of visual to show how many items he ate in a day and then how many items he ate all together in a week.  

If you enjoyed this book, check out some other books written by Eric Carle

Some Examples:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?

The Tiny Seed

Little Cloud

Resources:
Carle, E. (1969). The very hungry caterpillar. London: Puffin.

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