‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ (La oruga muy hambrienta) is a great book to use in your elementary Spanish or bilingual class. It is a simple story that students love. It also has a wide variety of basic vocabulary that could be taught and built upon in your class. For example, it has the butterfly life cycle, days of the week, food, some adjectives and some sequencing words. Below you will see some ideas of what I like to do in my classroom. Most of the activities would work in Pre-K, Kindergarten and first-grade classrooms.
I am a big fan of visual word walls in Spanish class. I think it is important for students to have a place that they can refer to when working on activities, speaking or writing and not having to memorize. Here is an example of my vocabulary word wall for ‘La oruga muy hambrienta’ book. It is great to display for the week or two that we are working on this story, the activities, and sequencing in class.
Learning to retell a story in order is a skill we are always working on in the primary grades. This is a great visual for students to use to work in small groups, partners or even alone to retell the ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ in Spanish. You could include just the days of the week or the sequencing words as well; depending on the group, level and what your learning target is. This is also something that could be sent home after done in class (in an envelope or baggie) for students to show off their Spanish skills to their parents.
What kid doesn’t like a game? Even better an educational game. Here is a Tic-tac-toe (tres en raya) and a memory game/go fish You can also scaffold this activity if you like. You could have your beginners just say or read the vocabulary word. Your more advanced students could use the words in a sentence or use the word to talk about or retell the story. These are great activities to do as a whole group, in partners, centers or even could be sent home as homework or review.
I use a wide variety of activities depending on the age group or level of the students that I am working with. For students in Pre-K or the beginning of Kindergarten, there are a few ‘coloring’ pictures. There are ones with important vocabulary from the story (mariposa, oruga, hoja, etc.) and then another set with numbers 1-5 with the fruit that the ‘oruga hambrienta’ ate next to the number. I also use a variety of graphic organizers, cut and paste activities and writing activities that you could use with different leveled groups in the classroom.
I also use clip cards if working with Pre-K or Kindergarten students. I use clip cards with pictures of the food the caterpillar ate in the book. The student counts the number of objects and then put the clip on the correct answer. The other set of clips is with ‘sonido inicial’. The student would say the word, for example: ‘mariposa’ and then clip the ‘m’ as the beginning sound. This is a great center for Daily 5, literacy, guided math or centers.
If you are interested in buying this ‘La oruga muy hambrienta’ activities recourse click HERE. These are some of the activities you could use if using the book ‘La oruga muy hambrienta’ in your elementary Spanish or bilingual classroom. Do you have any other fun activities, crafts or ideas you usually teach with this unit? Let us know. Leave a comment.
