Author Study | The World Of Eric Carle

Something truly magical happens when an adult reads "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to a child who will no doubt be in awe of this well known and loved book. These days, the little green, red-faced caterpillar is everywhere - clothing, bibs, plates, cups, toys... I love all of the early learning that comes from this and many more Eric Carle books... Allow me to summarise (the five pictured below are key 'living things' texts I used for my recent Author Study).


The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Key themes at the core of this well loved classic include life cycles, numbers 1-5, days of the week & healthy/unhealthy food. Here are some resources and ideas (so much inspiration out there on the web).

- Have a Hungry Cateprillar shared fruit party! Simply purchase 1 apple, 2 pears, 3 plums, 4 strawberries and 5 oranges, ask the children to place them in the sequential order, retell the story, cut them up and enjoy them for shared fruit time.


- Here's a link to a story pattern, which is great for sequencing the hungry caterpillar story!
- And here's a great you tube link to watch the story.
This link has more than 60 play ideas based on the Very Hungry Caterpillar.
- My students created their own Eric Carle inspired painted collages of the Hungry Caterpillar (pictured below)


- And two handy little worksheets below :)

click here for source
click here to download (free)


The Very Busy Spider

Key themes include; farm animals, persistence & spider webs.

- I like this you tube link because it's the story's been turned into a song!
- Our class made our own "Very Busy" book, with each student writing a sentence and something they were very busy doing!
- We also created a spider web of our own by passing a roll of twine all around a circle. A great lesson in team work!
- Finally a simple colouring sheet and a couple of sequencing activities...

click here for source
click here to download (free)
click here to download (free)

The Bad Tempered Ladybird

This text focuses on concepts of time, size, sharing and getting along with others.

- Make your own lady bug clocks (I got my inspiration from this example I found on pinterest).
- Here's a great clock matching activity
- There are many great mathematical opportunities by counting or adding spots on the ladybugs!
- Engage in discussions with your students about the things that make them feel grumpy or grouchy.
Here's a youtube link to see and hear the story
- The powerpoint presentation below is designed to be used on the interactive whiteboard while children show their answers on student clocks

download for free form here

The Tiny Seed

Key themes include, seasons & weather, life cycles and plants.

- Here's a useful link to The Tiny Seed on you tube.
- Quite an obvious activity to go with this book is to plant your own seeds and watch them grow! We love the Live Love Beans because they have messages printed on them!
- Learn about the 4 seasons and different types of weather we experience.
- Label the parts of a plant worksheet (and other relevant activities to create a 'mini book')

click here to download (free)

Click here to purchase this mini-book

The Very Quiet Cricket

The Very Quiet Cricket focuses on persistence and friendship. The great thing I like about this book is the variety of minibeasts you can learn about and the different noises they make. If you're lucky enough you might be able to find a copy of this book with built in sound effects on the last page - very special and will have little ones on the edge of their seats!

- This website had quite a comprehensive list of a variety of activities to go with The Very Quiet Cricket.
- I found this activity pack full of resources from TpT for just $3.00!
- Click here for the youtube link to hear and see the story.

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Some of my other favourite Eric Carle books are pictured below...


- The Mixed Up Chameleon
- Draw Me a Star
- Little Cloud
- Mr Seahorse
- Friends

Two other timeless classics were written by Bill Martin Jr however the illustrations were done by Eric Carle. I believe the Art of Eric Carle is such an important component when engaging in this Author Study.


There's also a special version dedicated to endangered species called Panda Bear Panda Bear, What Do You See?

Below are some helpful resources to support your use of these texts:
- Kizclub.com is a great website I've used for years. I found all three story patterns which are great for sequencing; Brown Bear Story Pattern,  Polar Bear Story Pattern & Panda Bear Story Pattern. My students loved retelling the books with story patterns.
- Here are you tube links to all three books; Brown BearPolar Bear and Panda Bear

I also found a mini book for Brown Bear
We loved making a class book using this template.

Other books in the Eric Carle series for young children are the ABC and 123 books.


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Finally, here's a link to the Eric Carle Website which I found very informative to refer to throughout our unit. I love the Author Study approach to teaching English and found that my students were immersed, motivated and engaged in their learning. I'm so glad I had the idea to write this post to collate many of my Eric Carle resources and links in to the one place (but there is soooooo much more out there!)

Miss M and I were lucky enough to go and see The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show! Click here to read my review. I highly recommend seeing it if you have the opportunity!

Next Author Study for us is... Hairy Maclary and his friend Lynley Dodd.

Lauren
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Tiny footprints, handprints & fingerprints | Baby & Toddler Art

With Mother's Day coming up I thought this was the perfect time to publish this post (which has been sitting in my drafts folder for ages!)

Have you ever wondered what type of art project you can do with your baby or toddler if they are too young to hold a brush or will just put paint in their mouth if they attempt finger painting? You are in the right place! There's something so special about a tiny footprint being preserved in paint or dough and kept forever! These ideas make lovely gifts for grandparents too.

1. Footprint Butterfly


2. Footprint Tractor (I did this one as a Father's Day card)


3. Footprint Salt Dough (salt dough recipe = 1 cup plain flour, 1 cup salt and half a cup of water, low heat 75 degrees celsius for approx 3 hours until dried out). I painted mine like Christmas trees and gave them to family and friends for Christmas gifts, however you could leave them plain.


4. Footprint Flower (I made this special one for my mother in law's recent birthday)


Or simply place a hand or footprint in a card! I found footprints much easier. When my little miss was really young, she kept her hands in little tight balls, and when she got older, she tried to grab hold of everything when we attempted to do handprints in Christmas cards!

Here are some other finger print ideas I've stumbled upon around the web. These may be suitable for older children.

5. Fingerprint christmas fairy lights

6. Fingerprint flowers

7. Fingerprint birds

8. Fingerprint Hungry Caterpillar

9. Fingerprint "I Love You" Book

A whole class handprint mural would be a lovely idea for a pre-school or school art activity, particularly at the start of a year or term.

Finally if you're feeling brave and don't mind the mess, here's a link to Scented homemade edible finger paints to try with your little one.

Happy painting and printing and don't forget Mother's Day is only a few weeks away!
Lauren

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TPT | Teachers Pay Teachers

School holidays! Woo hoo! Time to spend time with my toddler, unwind, get back into blogging, all the while thinking ahead to next term.

At the start of the teaching year, I stumbled upon a little gem of a website called Teachers Pay Teachers - a site where teacher's can buy, sell and share original teaching resources. It's like the teaching world's equivalent to eBay, Etsy and Gumtree. Not since Pinterest itself have I found such a useful website to get new ideas for my classroom and lesson plans. If you even did a Pinterest search "teacher pay teachers" who knows what great ideas you might find!

I feel that so far my blog has been predominately baby play and I haven't delved too much into the teaching side of things. So I thought this was a good place to start. I wanted to share a couple of great ideas and worksheets that I've found on TpT, and of course I'll be providing links back to the source so if you see anything you like - you can buy it! This post is not written with just teachers in mind, but also parents who may want to do a little extra work at home with their child.

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Jolly Phonics Bingo - I'm looking forward to trying this next term.
(I'd love to dedicate a post to Jolly Phonics in the coming weeks. I believe it is such a wonderful 
programme to teach young children the sounds that make up the English language)


Handwriting




Sight Words (set of 30 high-frequency sight words)


Number of the Day / Calendar Maths (free digital download)



Teen numbers
This first set of worksheets 11-20 is quite simple (free digital download - click here)
The one below is more difficult (click here)


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I just love how visually appealing and inviting the worksheets are! I must say that I do always like to add an element of 'hands on' leaning to my lessons but I believe a good balance of worksheets, book works, hand on experiences and play based learning provides a well rounded educated child. This of course also depends on your school's approach to learning whilst the Australian Curriculum underpins it all.

Here are some of my other favourite websites for teacher resources
There are some posts that are on the way in the coming weeks - Eric Carle, Jolly Phonics, Sensory Play, Montessori, and much more!

Thanks for visiting,
Lauren

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