A Simple Lesson Idea

Today I tried out a lesson with a small group of children. I didn’t have my story book One Little Caterpillar with me and I needed to be resourceful, which worked out as a valuable learning experience for the children. I had half an hour of preparation time and I used this to write the words of the story. It wasn’t hard because I knew the story off by heart. I wrote one sentence on each piece of paper using large neat writing.

I told the children we were going to do a play about how a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. I showed them pictures of the life cycle from a book I found at the school library. If you don’t have a book, you could draw it, which was my back up plan!

Watch the play below. Today I had a group of 18, larger than this group in the video, and I had groups of 5 children take turns while the others watched and recited the story. This was great practice for them.

Then we read the sentences on each piece of paper together and the children chose their favorite part. They took their sentence away and drew a picture. Some children worked in pairs because there weren’t enough sentences to go around. If you have pictures of live butterflies, cocoons, and caterpillars, it would be great because you can teach them to draw.

I asked them to look at the shape first, add the details and then the colors. If there aren’t any pictures this could be a challenge. Ask them to use their imagination.

The children can copy or write their sentence from memory, and then use the idea they have to make up their own story. E.g. If their part is about a cocoon, their story will be about a cocoon. Then have a sharing time at the end.

Here’s the preview of the picture book. The next time I read the story to the children they will know it and understand the concept better. They will have experienced it!

You can use this lesson for mixed age groups up to age 8 or 9. Adapt it to suite children’s needs and interests. perfect for children who are learning English because the concepts are clear and repetitive.

Thank you for reading,
Maria Grujicic

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