By Steve Light
Ages: 3 months - 2 years
Discuss
- Have fun making the sounds of the train and encourage your child to join you. Talk about why that specific train is making that sound. For example: it is a fast train, a slow train, it is going up hill, it is an old train.
- As you read, insert the color of the train.
- Discuss the different types of trains. What does that type of train do?
- If you could be the conductor, what train would you drive?
- Have you seen a train? What sound did it make? What did it look like?
- Have you ridden in a train? If so, where did you go? If not, where would you like to go?
Activities
By Betty Schwartz and Alex Wilensky
Ages: 3 - 6 years
Discuss
- Have the child guess the color as you read through the book.
- See if they can count the dots.
- On each page there is something pictured that represents the new color added to the snake. Ask the child to identify that item. For example: When the snake gets black spots, pictured on the same page is a black crab.
- As the snake grows, it adds more colors to its skin. See if the child can name a couple ways in which he has changed as he has grown.
- Was the snake happy with the end result? Ask what the child likes most about the person that they have grown into?
Activities
- Draw or print and cut out some snake outlines (enough for each color in the book + one more for the 'blended' snake). As you reread the story, have the child use a pencil eraser and some ink to dot the correct spots on the snake. Glue the snakes in order on a separate sheet of paper.
- Do some color matching worksheets. You could easily make your own dotted snake color matching worksheets.
By Eric Carle
Ages: 1 - 3 years
Activities
- Caterpillar Collage.
- Make your own hungry caterpillar mural.
- Have the child write out an acrostic poem or/and a haiku poem
(an unrhymed three-line poem) using the butterfly topic. These poems
can be added to the mural. Haiku poems are very simplistic but if you
need further details, check out this webpage.
- Practice writing the days of the week and food names with these mini books.
- Here are two worksheets with the hungry caterpillar theme. One is for pre-writing skills (line tracing) and the other is for the child to write a summary of the book.
- Make an egg carton caterpillar.
- I have a caterpillar hand puppet made of felt from my mother-in-law. She also made a cocoon, butterfly, and fruit/food (all out of felt). The kids love feeding the caterpillar food as we go through the story. They find the fruit/food I mention and then count how many the caterpillar needs to eat. Then I put the caterpillar inside the cocoon and out comes the butterfly! That of course, is their favorite part. The older kids love to work the hand puppet themselves as they recount the story. You could easily make your own hand puppet or get something like what I saw on this webpage. The link also gives you an activity idea for sorting and counting.
- If you don't want to make a hand puppet, here is another great idea using an old Parmesan jar as the hungry caterpillar.
- Get crafty and make some caterpillar or butterfly finger puppets.
- Here are some math problem worksheets with the hungry caterpillar theme.
- Make pattern block butterflies. Great way to study colors, numbers, and symmetry. It also allows the child to be creative. They can repeat the activity several times and easily come up with different patterns to explore.
- This free worksheet has children measuring with cut out caterpillars.
- This free unit (PDF format) has a good variety of lesson themes including: days of the week, counting, butterflies, life cycles of a butterfly, opposites, sequencing, and healthy foods.
- Very Hungry Caterpillar vocabulary cards.
- Caterpillar magnet craft using little pompoms and clothespins.
By Robert Neubecker
Ages: 3 - 7 years
Grade Level: Preschool - 2
Discuss
- See if you can spot Izzy and Jo hiding in the picture pages.
- There is so much to see on each page, discuss what makes that area of the USA special. What can we learn about that area's climate or economy? Could you live there? Would you like to visit? Do you know anyone who lives there? What do people who live there do for a living? What do they do for fun?
- Seeing all the different areas what does it tell us about our country? Are we a small/big country? Are we diverse? What kind of opportunities do we have in the USA?
Activities
- Have the students draw and write what makes them say WOW about the USA.
- Print out an outline map of the USA. Color in the states that are represented in the book and have the students make a color code key as a reference.
- Look into the world of lobster fishing. Make a lobster hand and footprint piece of art.
- Get this print out of the Statue of Liberty. Make your own Statue of Liberty portrait. Or this Statue of Liberty outline painting.
- Here is a fifth grade Lady Liberty art project.
- Niagara Falls
- The Capitol
- Atlantic coast
- cape canaveral
- state fairs
- new orelans
- Mississippi River
- Chicago and poet Carl Sandbury
- Corn/MidWest
- Cattle Ranchers
- Grand Canyon
- Rocky Mountains
- California Sequoias
- North West Salmon
- Hawaiis Volcanoes
- Alaska Glacier
By Irene Kelly
Age: Grades 3 - 5
Discuss
- How many types of butterflies and moths are there in this world? Just a few? Thousands?
- Name the three main body parts of a butterfly. Answer: head, thorax, abdomen
- How many legs does a butterfly have? How many are used for walking? What is important about the butterfly's feet?
- How does a butterfly eat? What does it like to eat?
- Describe a butterflies wings. How do they work? What happens if a butterfly gets too cold to fly?
- Do all butterflies migrate?
- How do butterflies mate?
- Once the caterpillar hatches from the egg, what comes next?
- What is frass?
- Describe molting. How many time will a caterpillar molt before it is full grown?
- How do different caterpillars survive into adulthood? Camouflage? Calls for help?
- Metamorphosis takes a lot of work! Tell me, how does a caterpillar finally change into a butterfly?
- Name some threats to the butterfly. Some butterflies are endangered or extinct...what does that mean? What can you do to provide a supportive and beautiful environment for butterflies where you live?
Activities
By Peter Elwell
Ages: 3 - 5
Word List - Spanish
- Hola: Hello
- Adios: Good-Bye
- Mi nombre es Oscar: My name is Oscar
- Buenas Noches: Good night
- Mas medias, port favor. : More socks, please.
- Soy una mariposa? : Am I a butterfly?
Discuss
- When Oscar told his friends he was going to turn into a butterfly, how did they respond? Based on their reaction to Oscar, would you like them to be your friends? Do you have friends who "bug" you or others? Are you a friend who "bugs" people?
- Tell me a little bit about Edna. What did she mean by "can't judge a book bi its cover"?
- When Oscar started researching for himself, what did he discover? What items did he use to do his research? Name two things he fount out about Mexico.
- Describe Oscars nap. What did he dream about?
- What did he discover when he finally woke up from his long nap? How did he feel about this new discovery? Disappointed? Sad? Surprised?
- Even though he started to accept his identity, what gave him a new perspective? Did this give him new hope?
- When Oscar decides to make what he wants out of his life and chase his dreams, how do his friends respond? Were they supportive? Did he let their comments hold him back?
- In the end, was he happy or sad with his decision to become who he wanted to be?
Activities
- Paper plate butterfly life cycle.
- Caterpillar made from cut out paper hands.
- Check out this website for a map and video of the monarch butterfly's migration.
- Visit this page to see Five Fascinating Facts....Fall Monarch Migration.
- Using a Venn Diagram, discuss what similarities/differences you will find between the moth and the butterfly. Make your own diagram such as this one or by using this PDF.
- Print out pictures of moths and butterflies. Have the child sort through them and identify which is a butterfly and which is a moth. Here is an example.
- Moth coloring book.
- Get some basic facts about Mexico to talk about Oscar's new home.
By Scott Magoon
Ages: 4 - 8
Discuss
- Does the whale breath like a fish underwater or does it need to surface and breath in air just like us humans?
- When the whale swims down deep, what does he see? Why is it dark down there? What are those things that look like underwater stars?
- Who are the whale's friends? Not every animal is a friend of the whale. When does the whale need to be careful? What other animals live in the same habitat?
- The beluga whale is known as the canary of the seas. A canary is a little yellow bird that loves to sing. Why do you think the beluga whale is referred to as the canary of the seas?
- When the whale settles down for the night, what does it do? Do you have a similar or different night time routine?
Activities
- Watch and listen as the whales sing.
- Take a look at a map showing the beluga whale's habitat. Print out an outline of North America and color it in to represent that habitat.
- This is a fantastic book for early readers. Cut out several beluga whales and write on each one a sight word from the book. Glue these whales to an underwater coloring page. Or just use a blue sheet of paper and draw some seaweed and rock.
By Judy Sierra
Ages: K - 2
Discuss
- Why was the monkey looking for something else to eat? How would you like to eat just one thing, day after day? If you were on an island and had to pick one item to eat, what would it be?
- When the monkey spotted the banana tree, what did he decide to do?
- Why did the crocodiles want to be counted? Did the monkey need to count the crocodiles to know if there were more crocodiles than monkeys?
- Who are the monkey's friends in this book? How do they help him?
- Why did the monkey tell the crocodiles that he needed to count them twice?
- What character traits would you give to the monkey? What about the crocodiles?
Activities
- Have fun counting up to and down from 10. Take time to actually count each crocodile as you read the story.
- Since this is a rhyming story, after you have read the book a couple times, see if your child can complete the sentences for you. The visual clues are fantastic!
- Check out this website for a list of "rare" words found in the book. The free PDF also has numbered crocodiles that can be cut out and colored in.
- Numerical Sequencing
By Jerry Pallotta
Ages: PreK - 3
Discuss
- From memory, name a few of the apples in the book. Describe what you remember about each different apple that makes them unique.
- As mentioned in the book, orange and apples are both fruit but are different in several ways. Note what makes them different.
- The Asian pear looks like an apple but it is not! Looks can fool you! What do you know about the Asian pear that would make you think it is an apple? What makes it a pear and not an apple? What other fruit can end up with mistaken identities?
- What do you know about apple blossoms? What role does the bee play in getting apples on the tree? How important is this role? What is pollen? What other plants have pollen?
- How is cider made? What is the difference between cider and apple juice?
Activities
- As you read the book, follow along with a few real apples. Ask the child how you should cut the apple to get the fraction represented in the book. Use the fraction tiles to show the equivalent of the fractions shown in the book.
- When you get to the orange fraction page, peel two oranges and see which one has more pieces (hopefully one orange has less/more than the other). Add and subtract equal pieces from each set. Example: One orange has 8 slices, the other 10 slices. Remove 2 slices from each set. One goes from 8/8 to 6/8 and the other goes from 10/10 to 8/10. Ask the child which fraction is < or > than the other. Continue by removing another two pieces and ask the same question. Keep subtracting pieces and then start adding them in again. You can add one at a time to make it more interesting. See if the child notices a pattern. Use fraction tiles to help assist with the problem solving.
- Find a outline of an apple and have the child label the parts of an apple.
- Make Monkey Bread for a hands on fractions activity.
- Fill out an Apple Fractions Booklet from this website.
- Make a multidimensional chart with descriptive words for how apples feel, taste, look, sound, and smell. Here is a link to how the apple chart can be made. This activity is great for even the youngest of learners and encourages the child to use all of their senses.
- Go more in depth into pollination with this pollination activity book. This bees and pollen activity book expands on the subject even more and is directed towards a higher grade level. I do like this second book because it has a lot of really hands on activities.
- Bee and flower craft.
- Buy some apple juice and some apple cider. Have the child note the differences between the two. If possible, visit a place where you can bring your own apples to be made into cider.
- The book touches base on improper fractions. Check out this link for additional support in explaining how improper fractions work. Or this link which includes 10 review questions after the lesson. Here are two worksheets on improper fractions: basic and more advanced.
By Jane O'Conner
Ages: 4 - 7
Word List
- alfresco: doing something outside
- Name something you can do alfresco.
- damage: hurt
- lunar vehicle: moon car
- dreary: dark and ugly
- What is the opposite of dreary? (Hint: It rhymes)
- locate: find
- Please help me locate___________.
- legend: story
- commoner: someone who is not royal
- constellation: grouping of stars
- determined: set on doing something
- What are you determined to do today?
- Mais, Oui!: Why, yes! Of, course! (French)
- Voila!: There you go! Ta-da! (French)
Discuss
- The sun is only a medium-size star. Millions of other stars are bigger. They look small because they are so far away.
- Why can't we see the other stars during the day?
- The moon is made of rock. It can't shine on its own.
- Is the moon a star? Why does it glow at night?
- It takes three whole days for a spaceship to reach the moon
- Do you know the name of a spaceship?
- From the moon, astromauts can see Earth. The oceans and clouds make it look like a gorgeous blue and white marble.
- What do astronauts wear when exploring the moon?
- How do astraunots get around on the moon?
- What can astronauts do on the moon?
- Do astronauts eat special food? What kind of food?
- The moon looks different every night.
- What do some people say the y see on the moon when it is full?
- What are the phases of the moon?
- Stars come in different colors. They are blue, yellow, and red.
- Can you name a blue or red star?
- Sailors used the North Star to navigate their ships.
- What direction is the North Star pointing to?
- What is a different name for the North Star?
- Groups of stars are called constellations. THere are legends about these constellations.
- What is the easiest constellation to find?
- What does the Big Dipper look like?
- Who was Orion? During what season does he appear?
- The weather can make it hard to see stars.
- What conditions make it more difficult to see the stars?
Activities
- Create a solar system mobile.
- Connect the stars on this page to see what constellation you have formed.
- Stargazer Coloring page, here.
- Phases of the moon worksheet. Color in the eight phases of the moon.
- Go to this link to find a FREE space unit. It is an introduction to an even larger unit about space. The free unit includes the following (all with a space theme):
- Punctuation
- Patterns
- Trace, Draw, and Write: Astronaut
- Color by Number: Rocket
- Color and Cut: ROcket
- Missing Numbers to 120
- Starry Night: Color
- Count by 4s: Moon Rocks
- Adding to 10
- Adding with Carrying - 3 Digits
- If you visit this website, there are some useful pages available to save and print. They include:
- Solar system picture and definition matching
- Solar system quiz
- Follow directions: colors, shapes, sizes, left/right, top/bottom
- Graphing
- Put the planets in order
- Label items in outer space.
- Learn about the first African American woman to go into space. Here is a coloring page with information about Dr. Mae Jemison.
- This webpage has two really cute coloring pages of kids out in space.
- Print out this outline of an astronaut's helmet. Have the child drawn their face inside the helmet. You could also cut out the inside of the helmet and replace it with a picture of the child's face.
- Take a bit of time to learn more about space shuttles and lunar vehicles. There are lots of websites with information and activities related to those two subjects.
- Take a page and divide it in half (or use two pages). Have the child color one page to look dreary and the other to look cheery.
- Dedicate a day to doing things alfresco.
- Build a fort or camp out in the stars. Take time to help the child locate constellations. Buy some "astronaut food" (dry camp food) to snack on as you stargaze.
by Kathryn Otoshi
Ages: 4 - 8
Discuss
- How does it feel to be blue? Have you ever felt like blue?
- How does it feel to be red? Have you ever felt red?
- Why did red act that way towards blue?
- Why didn't the other colors say something to red? Have you ever felt like the other colors?
- What was different about one? How did one help all the other colors? Have you ever been like one? How can you be like one?
- What does it mean to count?
Activities
- First Reading: In the story, every time Red says
something mean and no one speaks up, he gets…bigger…and bigger…and
Bigger… During the first reading, every time Red says or does something
mean, you will squeeze one drop of red food coloring into a clear glass
of water. Example: Red tells blue, “Red is hot. Blue is not.” The
students will notice that the water appears redder with each added drop
of food coloring.
Second Reading: This time, you will add an extra
step to the experiment using a second glass of water. Again, every time
Red says something mean, you will squeeze one drop of red food coloring
into the second glass of water. This time when One and the other colors
stand up to Red you will drop different colors of food coloring (blue,
green, yellow) into the glass covering up the red. Before One showed up,
what could the colors have said to Red? As each student shares an idea,
he or she drops their color of choice (except for red) into the glass.
Compare both glasses of water. What is different about the second
glass? The first glass is bright red. The second glass is a mixture of
all the colors resulting in red being less dominant. When we stand up
for ourselves and others we take away the bully’s power!
- Have the child write the numbers with watercolor on a sheet of paper. Use the color that corresponds to the number in the book. Next to the numbers, write down what character trait that number represents. For example: 4 is Regal
- Write down the numbers 1 - 7 randomly on a piece of paper (space them out a bit). Have the child use a watercolor to make the correct amount of dots for each number. Use the color that corresponds to the number in the book. For example: Next to the number 3, the child would make three green dots.
- Write the numbers 1 - 7 on the left hand side of a page, in order, from top to bottom. In the center of the page, have the child paint a large dot representing each color in the book. Ask them to draw a line from the correct color to its corresponding number in the book.
- Have the child colors 5 small circles with the watercolor (purple, orange, green, yellow, blue). Then have them make a really large red circle. Follow this with making a large number 1 in gray. Talk about why the red is big and why the colors feel small and how gray is different/standing out.
*The discussion questions and the first activity listed were taken from this website.
Here are some more links with additional questions and activities:
More Questions
The One
Inferences/Character Traits
Thought Bubbles
Gloria Whelan
Ages: K-Grade 3
Discuss
- What was Queen Victoria's desire?
- What made her afraid to go swimming in public?
- What was Prince Albert's first solution/idea? Why was it a bad idea?
- What did he end up making for her instead? How did it work?
- How did Queen Victoria respond to this new invention?
- What do you think of the bathing machine? Is it something you would like to use or wish was still around? Or, do you think the idea is crazy?
- How have swimsuit styles over the years changed the way we swim? What do you like most/least about today's swimsuit? Would you prefer to wear a swimsuit from the past? Why?
- What do we find out about Price Albert in this book? What do you think of Queen Victoria's relationship with her husband, Prince Albert? Are they sad/happy together? How many children did they have? What kind of family do you think they were based on the clues in this book? Would you have liked to have been a part of this family? Why?
Activities
- Have the child find words in the book that he/she is unfamiliar with and list them on a separate sheet or in their vocabulary notebook. Look up their definitions. Once the child understands the meaning of these new words, have them put those words into a sentence.
- Gather more information on Queen Victoria. Create a quiz on the key periods of her life. Put together a clothespin (or other type) timeline.
- Print out a family tree of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and their children. Have the child color out their own family tree.
- Collect pictures and information about swimsuits from ancient Greece/Rome to today's modern suit. Talk about the history of the swimsuit. Have the child design and color their own swimsuit (on paper) and have them tell you what makes it special. Ask them to be creative.
- Explore the Victorian Era and note the differences for children back then from children of today.
- Have a Victorian Tea Party
Deborah Hopkins
Grades: K-3
This book really has endless learning possibilities. This is a really awesome (and FREE) unit pack with lessons on almost every subject matter even slightly touched on in the book. Everything from alliterations to fractions. You can easily spend a month on this book. Not only because of all the different subject matters begging to be explored but it is also a book you will enjoy reading time and time again.
Discuss
- Oregon Trail
- Oregon Statehood
- Pioneers and their wagons
- Alliterations
- Personification
- Tall Tales
- Weather
- Graphing
- Apples
Activities
- Find an outline map of the Oregon Trail. Have the child color the trail from east to west. Have them place a sticker at the begging and end of the trail. Note the location of Chimney Rock and other landmarks. Have them color in the state of Oregon and if they live in another state, have them color in their home state too. Use this map to discuss distances and other details related to the book.
- Discuss the different names of the apples listed in the book. Name a few more. Head to the grocery store and buy different types of apples. Take a picture of each apple and have the child describe the color, texture, and taste of that apple. Journal your discoveries.
- Pick another tall tale book to read. Discuss what makes it a tall tale. Compare it to this book.
- Do some research with the child on Oregon's flag, state bird, and state flower.
- Make your own pioneer wagon.
