The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Eric Carle’s – The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a must read for young readers.
It is an excellent book which addresses the life cycle of a butterfly. From a egg , it hatches into a tiny caterpillar and starts eating till it becomes a very fat and big caterpillar. After it has ate it’s full it weaves a cocoon around it and hibernates before emerging as a colourful butterfly.
It teaching the Science concept of a butterfly’s life cycle and is an introduction to the topic of animal life-cycle.
Egg—> Larvae —-> Cocoon —-> Adult Butterfly
The book also address the concept of counting and healthy/unhealthy foods.The caterpillar feasts on unhealthy snacks such as chocolate cake, ice-cream, pickle, Swiss cheese, salami, a lollipop, some cherry pie,a sausage, a cupcake and one slice of watermelon. As result of his feasting he had a stomach. Parents can focus on the need to eat healthy and in moderation to kids as a subtopic from reading this book.
Counting and days of the weeks is also addressed in this book through in the section
“ On Monday, he ate through one apple. But he was still hungry.”
“On Tuesday, he ate through two pears . But he was still hungry.”
“On Wednesday, he ate through three plums. But he will still hungry”
Kids can stick their fingers through the holes in the fruits on each page while the caterpillar devours the different fruits each day and count along. By encouraging the kids to count they will slowly be able to associate the spoken number with the quantity.
You can view the video here
