PLANNING THE BUTTERFLY STORIES
Materials:
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Brainstorm sheets for each child.
• Pencils.
Explain that you are going to read the story again, but this
time you want the kids to listen for the caterpillar’s problem. After reading the line, “One Sunday morning
the warm sun came up and –pop!- out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar,” stop and say,
“Did anyone here the caterpillar’s problem? Whisper it to your neighbor.” {Answer: The caterpillar is
hungry.}
Say, “Let’s find out how he fixes his problem…” and read the pages describing his eating. Invite the kids to
join along when you read, “But he was still hungry.”
After reading the rest of the story, ask the class, “How did the caterpillar solve his problem?” {Answer: He
ate a lot of food.}
“What happened when he ate too much food on Saturday?” {Answer: He got sick.}
“How did he solve that problem?” {Answer: He ate
healthy leaves and felt better.}
Tell the class that each student is going to be writing
their own caterpillar stories. But instead of writing
about hungry caterpillars, they are going to solve
another kind of problem. Have students brainstorm
other words that could describe a caterpillar problem
and write their ideas on a list. Possible options
include, shiny, sleepy, bored, fast, slow, smelly, rude
and colorful.
Pick one of the kids’ suggestions to map out together
as a class. Walk the class through the front page of
the brainstorm sheet. Then have kids complete their
front page. Younger students could draw pictures
and older students could write words.
When the class is ready, come back together and
complete the back page as a group. Then have kids
work on their back sheet.
15 – 45 minutes depending on age and ability of
class.
