Minor early English
Picture book younger children
The very hungry caterpillar.
Eric Carle.
1994
I have chosen to do a picture book lesson about the book ‘The very hungry caterpillar’.
I chose this book because a lot of children already know the book in Dutch and will be able
to match these two. They recognise the caterpillar and by recognition some of them will be
interested in the book and lesson right away.
The pictures are fun as well, they are attractive and colourful and easy to connect to the text
in the book. Furthermore, there are a lot of subjects giving opportunities to do lessons
about. The key theme of the book is food, and eating is a thing people and animals do every
day. This fits the perception of the children.
The days of the week is a theme in the book as well. The days of the week is a theme young
children, children in group 1/2 know about in Dutch already. It is fun and easy to into the
days of the week in English as well. They will connect these to Dutch very fast as well.
At the end of the story, the caterpillar becomes a butterfly. This can be used to do a lesson
within the theme ‘nature’, about how caterpillars become butterfly and maybe the
metamorphosis of other animals as well.
The language input of the book is quite simple and mainly consists out of short sentences.
The sentences, the short ones as well as the longer ones, can be connected and pointed out
in the pictures very easily, so it is very clear what the sentences say.
Example: ‘In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf.’
In this picture, we see the moon, the egg and the leaf.
The children will probably not know these words in
English yet, but they can very easily be pointed out in
the picture while telling the story. Words such as ‘little’
cannot be pointed out in the picture, but they are very
easy to act out. The rest of the sentences in the story
are a lot like this one. Besides this, there is a lot of
repetition in the book, for example the sentence ‘but he
was still hungry’. This sentence is repeated five times. This sentence is another example of a
sentence which is easy to act out.
On Monday he ate through one apple. But he was still hungry.
On Tuesday he ate through two pears, but he was still hungry.
Picture book younger children
The very hungry caterpillar.
Eric Carle.
1994
I have chosen to do a picture book lesson about the book ‘The very hungry caterpillar’.
I chose this book because a lot of children already know the book in Dutch and will be able
to match these two. They recognise the caterpillar and by recognition some of them will be
interested in the book and lesson right away.
The pictures are fun as well, they are attractive and colourful and easy to connect to the text
in the book. Furthermore, there are a lot of subjects giving opportunities to do lessons
about. The key theme of the book is food, and eating is a thing people and animals do every
day. This fits the perception of the children.
The days of the week is a theme in the book as well. The days of the week is a theme young
children, children in group 1/2 know about in Dutch already. It is fun and easy to into the
days of the week in English as well. They will connect these to Dutch very fast as well.
At the end of the story, the caterpillar becomes a butterfly. This can be used to do a lesson
within the theme ‘nature’, about how caterpillars become butterfly and maybe the
metamorphosis of other animals as well.
The language input of the book is quite simple and mainly consists out of short sentences.
The sentences, the short ones as well as the longer ones, can be connected and pointed out
in the pictures very easily, so it is very clear what the sentences say.
Example: ‘In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf.’
In this picture, we see the moon, the egg and the leaf.
The children will probably not know these words in
English yet, but they can very easily be pointed out in
the picture while telling the story. Words such as ‘little’
cannot be pointed out in the picture, but they are very
easy to act out. The rest of the sentences in the story
are a lot like this one. Besides this, there is a lot of
repetition in the book, for example the sentence ‘but he
was still hungry’. This sentence is repeated five times. This sentence is another example of a
sentence which is easy to act out.
On Monday he ate through one apple. But he was still hungry.
On Tuesday he ate through two pears, but he was still hungry.
