Western Australian Curriculum: English Yr 1 - The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Curriculum Link Activities

activity one:
In order for students to understand the pattern of repetition, they must be exposed to it and experience it hands on.
Language: text structure and organisation
Read through, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” and express to the students that there are repeating lines throughout
Understand patterns of repetition and contrast in simple texts (ACELA1448)
the story. On a second read through, get the students to say the repeating line. There is also a pattern within the text,
- Literacy
utilising the days of the week. Ask the students, “What day comes next?” This questioning will help them to
understand that Monday always follows Sunday and Tuesday always follows Monday, and so on.

activity three:
Purchase a few pool noodles and use a thick, black marker to write out commonly used words on them. Cut the
words into their individual letters and give them to the students. The class uses the manipulatives to create the words
that were originally written on them. This hands-on activity is aimed to engage the students in the spelling of
common words. The students can work together or individually, depending on the learning level of each student.
Students use this activity to practice spelling ands sounding out.
activity four:
Using a sticker booklet, it can either be a letter pad or sticker that just have letter written on them, get the students to
spell words that are said out loud. The words used for this activity are taken from the text and may not have been
explored by the students before, eg “cocoon.” For example, the word “apple” is made with the letters a, p, p, l and e,
these are placed side by side to create the body of a caterpillar. After spelling out each word the students can decorate
Language: phonics and world knowledge their page, giving the caterpillars a head and drawing a background.
Use visual memory to read and write high-frequency words (ACELA1821) activity five:
- Literacy A sight word board game is created, there are multiple boards that all together incorporate the 100 sight words
written on the fruits eaten in “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” In groups of about four, the class plays the game,
rolling a dice and move their piece the number of spaces rolled. The word they land on, they have to sound out and
say to the group. If they have used the sounding out strategy and can’t seem to get the word, the group words
together to figure the word out. On the board there are also fruits that the caterpillar has already eaten. Landing on
this means the player misses their next turn. The objective is to move through the board and finish first.
activity six:
A worksheet is made up using words from the text that have the first letter missing. The picture from the text of what
the word is describing is placed next to the word. The students have to break the word down into sounds and isolate
the initial phoneme. Students work through this alone. A similar activity exploring phonemes would be to read “The
Very Hungry Caterpillar” and explore the letter C making the ‘kuh’ sound. Explore the letter and high frequency
words that begin or incorporate the letter ‘c.’
Language: expressing and developing ideas activity two:
Identify the parts of a simple sentence that represent ‘What’s happening?’, Use the sentence following sentence from the text:
‘What state is being described?’, ‘Who or what is involved?’ and the “On Wednesday he ate through 3 plums”
surrounding circumstances (ACELA1451) Based on this sentence ask the students about what is happening and who the main character is. Repeat this for
- Literacy multiple sentences and explore what is occurring in each sentence. The students are to highlight the parts of the
- Critical and creative thinking sentence that answer the question and then draw an image to support their findings.

activity seven:
Literacy: examining literature Explore the concept of 'plot' with the students. To start with, have them identify the beginning, middle and end of
Discuss features of plot, character and setting in different types of literature and common things such as: a school day, the word cat or even the days in a week. During a school day the students will
explore some features of characters in different texts (ACELT1584) explore how they arrive at school, when they go to lunch and when they pack away their things. Move into a focused
- Literacy
discussion about the text and explore the different things that happened throughout the plot. Working as a class,
- Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability
- Critical and creative thinking discuss the beginning, middle and end of the story, after this get the students to draw these events on a line, and get
them to plot the remainder of events around these main ones.

activity eight:
Literacy: creating literature Using similar characters, repetitive patterns or vocabulary, the students are to adapt and innovate their own ideas into
Innovate on familiar texts by using similar characters, repetitive patterns or a story. The students can choose a minimum of three similarities to incorporate into their text. The students are being
vocabulary (ACELT1832) asked to explore and understand the different ways that texts can be written in order to get a message across
- Literacy efficiently. The educator can provide prompts to the students if they are stuck, for example, “Why don’t we take this
sentence, ‘But he was still hungry.’ and change it to ‘But she was always grumpy?’ ”

activity nine:
Provide the students with cut outs of the fruits that are eaten by the caterpillar throughout the story. Using a hole-
punch have the students cut holes in each piece of fruit as the educator recites the story. To extend this activity give
students an A3 table with the days of the week titling each column. The students can place the hole-punched fruits
into the days that they were eaten, this prompts the memory of the events occurring.
Literacy: creating literature
activity ten:
Recreate texts imaginatively using drawing, writing, performance and digital
Decorate a clothes peg with one fruit from the story. Let the children know that they are to listen very carefully to the
forms of communication (ACELT1586)
order that the caterpillar eats the fruit, then read the text. After this the students clip the pegs in order of occurrence,
- Literacy
- Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability from memory, onto the caterpillar body. As they are clipping to the caterpillar body they are to recite the story in their
- Critical and creative thinking own words. In this way they are recreating the text in an alternative form.

activity elecen:
Using lego is a great hands on way for the students to explore the main scenes in the text. Read the story to the
children and explain to them that they need to recreate the story, this will mean they are actively listening. Using a
plain background as a canvas, the children can create their own sequence of events, retelling the parts of the story that
stood out to them. This development of fine motor skills is also impacts on a students pencil grip.
 activity twelve:
A comprehension sheet is provided to the students containing questions such as, “After the caterpillar came out of the
egg, what did it do?” and “After how many days did the caterpillar become no longer hungry?” In order to make this
activity more engaging than just a work sheet, interactive acuities will be spread around the classroom, containing the
answers to each question. QR codes to online videos, games or tasks will be hidden around, the students are to. find
them and complete whatever is laid out by the QR code. Using the outcome of the activity they performed the
students will be able to answer the questions.

activity thirteen:
Read the story to the students once over for pleasure. After this, give the students an ‘I Spy’ sheet that contains a
multitude of food items, some from the text and some not. When the educator reads the story again, without showing
Literature: interpreting, analysing, evaluation
the class the images, the students have to remember what the food looks like and then find it on their sheet, they have
Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning about key
to find the number of fruit as well. The students are being asked to comprehend what they view around the text.
events, ideas and information in texts that they listen to, view and read by
drawing on growing knowledge of context, text structures and language activity fourteen:
features (ACELY1660) The students are given a piece of paper that has already been divided into 8 equal parts. The students must work
- Literacy
through the story and chose eight key events that occurred, wiring these in each of the boxes. Then, the students are
- Critical and creative thinking
to draw an image of that main event in the box and describe what is happening. Here the students are reciting, in their
own words, what happening during the story and so gaining an understanding of the context.

activity fifteen:
Introduce the text, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” Begin by reading the book a few times for pleasure. After this,
explain to the students that each day a new page of the story will be read. Each page is assigned one to two actions
that relate to the text on it. On Monday, go over the first two pages and get the students to come up with actions as a
class. Get them to repeat these actions a few times, until they can do it and recite the text without a prompt. The next
day, start but going over what was learnt yesterday, then move onto the next page. At the end join both days work
together and let to students act out and recite what is learnt so far. After a few weeks the students will be able to full
tell the story using only the prompting actions that they came up with as a class.

activity sixteen:
Read the following texts by Eric Carle:
Literature: creating texts - The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Create short imaginative and informative texts that show emerging use of - The Grouchy Ladybug
appropriate text structure, sentence-level grammar, word choice, spelling, - The Very Busy Spider
punctuation and appropriate multimodal elements, for example illustrations and - The Very Lonely Firefly
diagrams (ACELY1661) Each of these have a similar story line, where the problem is identified in the title and resolved throughout the text.
- Literacy
As a class, the children are to identify the problem in each and how this problem is overcome. Using this
- Critical and creative thinking
- Personal and social capabilities understanding, get the class to create their very own story using a similar text structure and starting prompt of, “The
Very _______ ________.” Children are to start by writing out the story onto lined paper. After being checked over,
they can create their own book with a front cover and images that reflect the story being told.
 activity seven

activity fourteen

activity five
activity five activity thirteen

activity twelve

activity nine

activity ten

activity four
activity eight
activity three
Western Australian Curriculum: English (Year 1)
Achievement Standard
Sub-strands Content Descriptors
(organised by receptive and expressive modes)


 Receptive Modes:
Language variation and
• Understand that people use different systems of communication to cater to different needs and purposes and that many people may use sign systems to communicate with others (ACELA1443) - listening, reading, viewing
change By the end of Year 1, students understand the
different purposes of texts. They make connections
• Understand that language is used in combination with other means of communication, for example facial expressions and gestures to interact with others (ACELA1444)
Language for to personal experience when explaining characters
• Understand that there are different ways of asking for information, making offers and giving commands (ACELA1446)
and main events in short texts. They identify that
interaction • Explore different ways of expressing emotions, including verbal, visual, body language and facial expressions (ACELA1787)
texts serve different purposes and that this affects
• Understand that the purposes texts serve shape their structure in predictable ways (ACELA1447) how they are organised. They describe characters,
language

Text structure and • Understand patterns of repetition and contrast in simple texts (ACELA1448) settings and events in different types of literature.
• Recognise that different types of punctuation, including full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, signal sentences that make statements, ask questions, express emotion or give commands (ACELA1449)
organisation
• Understand concepts about print and screen, including how different types of texts are organised using page numbering, tables of content, headings and titles, navigation buttons, bars and links (ACELA1450) Students read aloud, with developing fluency. They
read short texts with some unfamiliar vocabulary,
• Identify the parts of a simple sentence that represent ‘What’s happening?’, ‘What state is being described?’, ‘Who or what is involved?’ and the surrounding circumstances (ACELA1451)
simple and compound sentences and supportive
Expressing and • Explore differences in words that represent people, places and things (nouns, including pronouns), happenings and states (verbs), qualities (adjectives) and details such as when, where and how (adverbs) (ACELA1452)
images. When reading, they use knowledge of the
• Compare different kinds of images in narrative and informative texts and discuss how they contribute to meaning (ACELA1453)
developing ideas relationship between sounds and letters, high-
• Understand the use of vocabulary in everyday contexts as well as a growing number of school contexts, including appropriate use of formal and informal terms of address in different contexts (ACELA1454)
frequency words, sentence boundary punctuation
• Manipulate phonemes in spoken words by addition, deletion and substitution of initial, medial and final phonemes to generate new words (ACELA1457) and directionality to make meaning. They recall
• Use short vowels, common long vowels, consonant digraphs and consonant blends when writing, and blend these to read single syllable words (ACELA1458) key ideas and recognise literal and implied
• Understand that a letter can represent more than one sound and that a syllable must contain a vowel sound (ACELA1459) meaning in texts. They listen to others when taking
Phonics and word
• Understand how to spell one and two syllable words with common letter patterns (ACELA1778) part in conversations, using appropriate language
knowledge • Recognise and know how to use simple grammatical morphemes to create word families (ACELA1455) features and interaction skills.
• Use visual memory to read and write high-frequency words (ACELA1821)
• Segment consonant blends or clusters into separate phonemes at the beginnings and ends of one syllable words (ACELA1822) Productive Modes:
- speaking, writing, creating
Texts in context • Respond to texts drawn from a range of cultures and experiences (ACELY1655) Students understand how characters in texts are
developed and give reasons for personal
• Engage in conversations and discussions, using active listening behaviours, showing interest, and contributing ideas, information and questions (ACELY1656) preferences. They create texts that show
Interacting with others • Use interaction skills including turn-taking, recognising the contributions of others, speaking clearly and using appropriate volume and pace (ACELY1788) understanding of the connection between writing,
literature

• Make short presentations using some introduced text structures and language, for example opening statements (ACELY1657) speech and images.
• Describe some differences between imaginative informative and persuasive texts (ACELY1658)
• Read supportive texts using developing phrasing, fluency, contextual, semantic, grammatical and phonic knowledge and emerging text processing strategies, for example prediction, monitoring meaning and rereading They create short texts for a small range of
Interpreting, analysing purposes. They interact in pair, group and class
(ACELY1659)
and evaluating discussions, taking turns when responding. They
• Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning about key events, ideas and information in texts that they listen to, view and read by drawing on growing knowledge of context, text structures and language
make short presentations on familiar topics. When
features (ACELY1660)
writing, students provide details about ideas or
• Create short imaginative and information texts that show emerging use of appropriate text structure, sentence level grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation and appropriate multimodal elements, for example illustrations and events, and details about the participants in those
diagrams (ACELY1661) events.
Creating texts • Reread student’s own texts and discuss possible changes to improve meaning, spelling and punctuation (ACELY1662)
• Write using unjoined lower case and upper case letters (ACELY1663) They accurately spell high-frequency words and
• Construct texts that incorporate supporting images using software including word processing programs (ACELY1664) words with regular spelling patterns. They use
capital letters and full stops and form all upper- and
Literature and context • Discuss how authors create characters using language and images (ACELT1581) lowercase letters correctly.
literacy

• Discuss characters and events in a range of literary texts and share personal responses to these texts, making connections with students’ own experiences (ACELT1582)
Responding to literature • Express preferences for specific texts and authors and listen to the opinions of others (ACELT1583)

• Discuss features of plot, character and setting in different types of literature and explore some features of characters in different texts (ACELT1584)
Examining literature • Listen to, recite and perform poems, chants, rhymes and songs, imitating and inventing sound patterns including alliteration and rhyme (ACELT1585)

• Recreate texts imaginatively using drawing, writing, performance and digital forms of communication (ACELT1586)
Creating literature • Innovate on familiar texts by using similar characters, repetitive patterns or vocabulary (ACELT1832)

General Capabilities Cross-Curriculum Priorities

• Literacy • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
• Numeracy • Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
• Information and communication technology (ICT) capability • Sustainability
• Critical and creative thinking
• Ethical behaviour
• Personal and social capability
• Intercultural understanding
References

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