The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is another favorite among my students and of course I happen to like it too.  Here are some ideas about how to integrate this book into your therapy.

Articulation:

I like to have the kids try and think of all the foods they like to eat.  We try to then find their speech sound(s) in the words.  Another activity that is fun for my younger kids is to create their very own “Hungry Caterpillar”.  Then they tell the group what their hungry caterpillar ate.  I pick the foods to put on their caterpillar so it targets the sound(s) they are working on in speech. 

The label on it says ______(name)'s Very Hungry Caterpillar

Language:

This is a great book for sequencing, talking about plural endings, categorizing etc. 

I made this caterpillar with a plain white paper lunch sack and painted it so the mouth was at the opening.  After we’ve read the book we sequence the foods and the kids get to put the picture of the food in the caterpillar’s mouth. 

This is a good activity if you are working on students being able to put complete sentences together and/or using plurals.  Make cards for Monday-Sunday, numbers 1-5 and a card that says “apple”, “pears”, “plums”, “strawberries” and “oranges”.  Have the kids figure out where each card goes on the sentence line. 

"Monday he ate 1 apple."

"Wednesday he ate 3 plums."

Other ideas:

-Make a t-chart and categorize the good foods in the book from the unhealthy foods. 

-Sequence the life-cycle of a butterfly.  

-Have each student create their very own Very Hungry (insert student's name here) and sequence the foods they had for breakfast, lunch, dinner etc. that week.