A Wrap Up of our Term 1 Living Things Unit

I don't know about you - but we had THE BEST time in the Early Years in Term 1. So much learning happened. So many new things, new friends and new experiences.

For a few years now, our key theme for Term 1 is "Living Things" alongside our author study of Eric Carle. Of course we are always evolving, adding, changing and updating our programme, but the overarching theme has remained the same. It's just such a good starting place for the first term of school.

Eric Carle Animal Alphabet flash cards + alphabet pebbles + alphablocks

Way back when I first started blogging in 2014, I did a post about our Eric Carle Author Study (read it here - my how much my blog has changed and evolved since then!). In this post I go through 5 of the key texts which are all about insects/living things in the garden. Today's post is a bit more general and to show you some other things we've been doing (incase you missed them on Instagram).

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A Very Hungry Caterpillar Tea Party {With Story Stones}

I'd be very surprised if you told me that your child didn't own a copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar (and if they don't I insist you get one!). It's one of my absolute favourites with so many opportunities for early learning. The clever way that Eric Carle integrates concepts of days of the week, numbers, healthy/unhealthy food as well as the life cycle of a caterpillar is like no other early childhood text.

So when Johanna from Hello Pear asked me if I would like to help her launch her 'Very Hungry Caterpillar' story stones, of course I said YES!

Kindly gifted for the purpose of this review. 
Not sponsored.

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Hello Spring {Live Love Bean}

Well Spring is well and truly here - we have had some gorgeous weather here in Adelaide and the start of Spring was the perfect time to plant our Magic Beans sent to us by Live Love Bean. The special thing about these beans is the words imprinted on them, which turn into the cutest little sprouts. I chose 'Believe / Achieve' because I thought it was a lovely message. Perfect for school age children to believe in themselves and strive to achieve their goals. (By the way you can custom order the words - even company names!)

My little Miss M enjoyed planting the seeds with me, carefully transferring soil into the little pots, planting the seeds and lovingly watering them. We decided to experiment and put three inside the house on our kitchen window sill (which gets plenty of morning light) and three outside with our other pot plants to see which would sprout first (the window sill ones won!). We also wondered what might happen if more than one seed was planted in a pot - the result, was that one seed sprouted well before any others.

As per the instructions, you can expect to see a small sprout after 7-10 days, but it took probably 3 weeks to get this result you see in the photographs. So we had to be patient and keep on watering them!

The perfect book to accompany this rich learning experience is The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle (read my Eric Carle author study here). We learn about all of the things that the tiny seed needs to grow and thrive, and it's a perfect way to introduce the four seasons.

Thank you Live Love Bean for sending us your magic beans to try! :)

Lauren

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show {Review}

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar makes his way off the page and onto the stage.

4 timeless stories, 75 magical puppets"

- The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show Website

On Saturday Miss M and her 1 year old cousin had their first experience at the theatre. We went to see 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show' and were absolutely in awe for the whole 50 minutes. It was the perfect choice for a toddler's first live show. Four Eric Carle stories were so cleverly told with the use of puppets and colour.

It began with The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse. A story that encourages little artists to be creative with their paintings and use whichever colours they like! Coloured fabric, juggling balls and puppetry brought this story to life!

Next came Mister Seahorse (as you may or may not know I'm expecting baby number two and have spent quite sometime explaining to Miss M that mummies are the ones who have the babies) - this story left her a little perplexed as it's daddy seahorse who cares for and gives birth to the babies. Bubbles added to the under water experience and the puppets were magical!

Thirdly came The Very Lonely Firefly - a beautiful story about persistence and finding your tribe. Darker lighting during this story highlighted the glowing fireflies.

And then the story we had all been waiting for, the one almost every child could recite by heart, the most endearing little and very hungry caterpillar emerged from his egg and entertained the littlies as he ate his way through the week.

When we read this book, Miss M doesn't quite understand that the caterpillar turns into the butterfly, she always asks "where is him?". But she was absolutely amazed when the butterfly flew off the pages of the book backdrop.

The show has finished it's three days in Adelaide, but now they head to Brisbane, Penrith, Queanbeyan and Newcastle. If you're in any of these cities I would highly recommend the show for children of all ages. For more information, here is their website (FYI - ticket prices are for all ages, under 2s are free and sit on laps).

*edited to add - this post was written in 2015. Please see the website for current tour dates

Thank you cast and crew of the show for such a beautiful first theatrical experience for our little people.

Lauren :)

PS: Teachers looking to do an author study on Eric Carle - look no further than this post of mine! It's my most popular post thanks to being featured on Living Montessori Now.

Not sponsored or gifted. I just absolutely loved this show and wanted to share our experience.

All photographs used with permission from The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show.

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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 Bear, Polar 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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