Teaching Week 10: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Lessons

Alrighty, well the first week back teaching went pretty well! I was a little tired though this week because I am still getting used to the time change. 

The first thing I taught all of the kids was how to say “Happy New Year!” 

The main lessons that I prepared for this week revolved around the book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This book reviews the days of the week, food vocabulary, and the lifecycle of a butterfly. I differentiated my lessons based on the ages of the students. The oldest kids were given slips of paper with words and pictures from the story, and when they heard the words, they had to show the pictures to the class. In this way, the kids payed more attention to the story, and reviewed the vocabulary. After reading the story, I asked the students questions about what happened in the story. Next, I gave the kids a worksheet where they had to recreate the story. They had to cut out pictures of what the caterpillar ate, and they had to put the images in order of what the caterpillar ate each day of the week. I also asked them questions about what foods from the story they like and don’t like to eat. 

I read the same book to the younger kids, and this time the lesson was a lot more guided. After each page, I checked for comprehension by having a student retell in French what I had read in English. I also did a lot of gestures while reading to help them understand words like: hungry, and stomachache. Then, as a class, we completed the worksheet and put the food that the caterpillar ate in order. With some of the more advanced younger grades, I reread the story and had them complete their worksheets alone as I read. 

Here are the little worksheets that I found online for this activity:

I also passed out little Hershey’s chocolate to all of the students. They all liked the chocolate, and they thought it was cool to try something from the US! :)

So, this year, I am trying to be more adventurous with my meals, so for dinner this week I made something new! I found a recipe online for Shrimp, Tomato, and Basil Pasta. It was pretty easy to make and it turned out pretty good! Here’s the link for those of you who are curious: 

http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/shrimp-tomato-basil-pasta-recipe-mslo0611

Also, this week, I bought a King Cake (galette des rois) and inside is a little figurine and whoever finds it in their slice is the King or Queen for the day! 

It even came with a crown! 

So happy I don’t work on Fridays,

Magdalena