316. INFANZIA SBS. The Little Bears discover food with The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Scopriamo insieme il nuovo tema dei Piccoli Orsi: il cibo! Attraverso la lettura coinvolgente de ‘La Piccola Bruco Maisazio’ di Eric Carle, esploriamo un mondo di parole legate al cibo, numeri e giorni. Un’avventura educativa e divertente che porta i bambini a creare e imparare attraverso giochi e attività coinvolgenti. Un viaggio tra le pagine per scoprire il ciclo di crescita di un bruco affamato, arricchendo il loro vocabolario e stimolando la creatività. Un’esperienza da non perdere!

This autumn, the Little Bears started a new topic as part of their Cambridge World of Words programme: food. The children use food-related language every day at lunchtime, and we expanded their vocabulary with flashcards, activities, songs and games.

To consolidate and contextualise the topic, we chose to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. This book, with its simple language, beautiful illustrations and repetition (“…but he was still hungry”) is perfect for the Little Bears. As well as food, the book also includes other core vocabulary such as numbers and days (“On Monday he ate one apple…”). Moreover, we see how the caterpillar progresses and changes over time from an egg to a little caterpillar and then to a big caterpillar, before finally turning into a beautiful butterfly. The story also offers a little lesson in healthy eating when we see the poor caterpillar suffering from stomach-ache after eating his way through a big picnic. A nice green leaf makes it all better, though!

After storytelling, the children created their own hungry caterpillars full of all the food he ate, to retell the story. We talked about the different foods, coloured them in and counted them. Then the children had to put them in chronological order before sticking them on the caterpillar. The long shape of the caterpillar reinforced the idea of time passing and the caterpillar growing. When the craft was complete, it visually helped the children to see the changes over time and the metamorphosis of the caterpillar.

An activity that was apparently simple, actually required the children to use many different skills, but we think you’ll agree that the result was well worth all their effort!