Eric Carle’s Very Hungry Caterpillar

This is an excellent book that deals with the life cycle of a butterfly. From an egg, it hatches into a tiny caterpillar and begins to eat until it grows into a very large, very large caterpillar. After eating, it is satiated, it weaves a cocoon around itself and hibernates before emerging as a colorful butterfly.

In addition to teaching the scientific concept of an insect’s life cycle, it also covers the concept of counting and healthy/unhealthy foods.

The caterpillar feasts on unhealthy snacks such as chocolate cake, ice cream, pickle, Swiss cheese, salami, lollipop, cherry pie, sausage, cupcake and a slice of watermelon. As a result of his feast, he had a stomach. Parents can focus on the need for children to eat healthy and in moderation as a subtopic of reading this book.

The court and the days of the weeks are also discussed in this book in the section

” On Monday, he ate an apple. But he was still hungry.

On Tuesday, it through two pears. But he was still hungry.

Children can run their fingers through the holes in the fruit on each page as the caterpillar eats the different fruits each day and counts. By encouraging children to count, they will slowly be able to associate the spoken number with the quantity.

The storybook I purchased came with a caterpillar plush. I found it very useful as it was an additional resource that I could use to explain the story and make the story more interactive.