CHARLIE THE CATERPILLAR activities and lesson plan ideas

Save yourself time and engage your students with these Charlie the Caterpillar activities. This jam-packed book companion is quick and easy to use - Just print and go!

Read on to learn more about all that is included in this standards-based interactive read aloud packet based on the children’s book, Charlie the Caterpillar by Dom DeLuise.

TO SAVE YOU TIME, WE'VE DONE ALL OF THE WORK FOR YOU!

1. We chose vocabulary words & kid-friendly definitions.
2. We selected mentor sentences & specific grammar skills for each.
3. We wrote 30 book-based writing prompts (that cover 10 genres of writing).
4. We identified an SEL focus / character education topic based on events in the story.
5. We constructed strategy-based reading comprehension questions and created no-prep, print-and-go reader response worksheets.

YOU ONLY NEED TO DO 3 QUICK & EASY STEPS:

STEP 1: PLAN

Simply customize your Charlie the Caterpillar lesson plans using the ideas in the teaching guide and choose from the 15 standards-based activities.

STEP 2: PREP

Prep can be as simple as printing the activity pages (or assigning the included digital version) and finding a free video of the book being read aloud online.

OPTIONAL: If you want to dive deeper into a book study, you’ll find our teaching ideas and slides make it easy to create mini-lessons, anchor charts, and slideshows.

STEP 3: TEACH

Engage your students with an interactive read aloud by reading or streaming the picture book. Practice reading comprehension strategies with text-based discussion questions. We even wrote the Charlie the Caterpillar comprehension questions for you!

Some teachers like to assemble and assign independent work packets. Others prefer to dive deeper into the story with vocabulary, grammar, SEL, and writing lessons that can span over several days.

THE CHARLIE THE CATERPILLAR BOOK COMPANION FOCUSES ON:

◼️READING SKILLS

☐ ANALYZING CHARACTER

☐ CAUSE AND EFFECT

☐ COMPARING AND CONTRASTING

☐ IDENTIFYING THEME | MESSAGE | MORAL

☐ SUMMARIZING / RETELLING

◼️GRAMMAR

☐ ANTONYMS

☐ ADJECTIVES

☐ IRREGULAR VERBS

☐ PREPOSITIONS

◼️SEL

☐ FRIENDSHIP

☐ BULLYING | TEASING

CHARLIE THE CATERPILLAR SUMMARY

Charlie was a young caterpillar who was excited to explore the world! When he set out exploring he came across some monkeys playing cards and asked if he could join. The monkeys told Charlie he couldn’t play because he was an ugly caterpillar. The comment made Charlie feel bad but he continued exploring. Next, he came across rabbits playing tennis and asked if he could play. Just like the monkeys, the rabbits said no because he was an ugly caterpillar. This made Charlie feel really bad. When he came across mice playing miniature golf, Charlie once again asked if he could play. The mice told Charlie they didn’t play with ugly caterpillars which caused him to start feeling ugly.

Charlie was sad and tired so he climbed up into a branch. He made himself a cocoon and took a nap. While he was sleeping, Charlie dreamed of having a best friend he could play with. When he awoke, Charlie was surprised to find he had turned into a beautiful butterfly! He began flying around and came across the animals he’d met previously. This time, everyone wanted to play with the beautiful butterfly, but Charlie couldn’t be bothered.

Later, Charlie saw Katie the caterpillar crying. She was upset no one wanted to play with her because she was an ugly caterpillar. Charlie was more than happy to play with Katie and be her friend. In fact, they became best friends and Charlie told her about becoming a caterpillar. The two new friends enjoyed playing cards, tennis and miniature golf together. Finally, Charlie’s dream of having a best friend had come true.

THIS COLLECTION OF ACTIVITIES and LESSON IDEAS INCLUDES:

➜ Comprehension Questions categorized by reading strategy; text-dependent
➜ Social Emotional Learning guidance lesson ideas & discussion topics based on the story
➜ Vocabulary Activities with kid-friendly definitions
➜ Grammar Topics selected to align with the text
➜ Focus Sentences use the book & author's craft as a mentor text to improve writing
➜ Lesson Planner summary, background info and planning space

➜ Story Mapping Printable identify character, setting, problem and solution

➜ Making Words Activity Page use any word from the book

➜ Focus Sentence copy work, identifying elements of the sentence, rewriting)

➜ Design a New Book Cover demonstrate understanding of the text by creating an illustration

➜ Predicting Activity primary-ruled and wider-ruled versions
➜ Summarizing Somebody → Wanted → But → Then → Finally

➜ Comparing and Contrasting using a Venn Diagram

➜ Cause and Effect analyze how events affect one another

➜ Visualization illustrate visualizations from the story and support thinking with text-based evidence

➜ Making Connections identify text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections

➜ Thematic Writing Paper Use with the Writing Prompts... Makes a Great Bulletin Board

➜ 2 Sequencing Activities First → Next → Then → Last and Beginning → Middle → End

➜ 2 Vocabulary Activities Vocabulary Booklet and Word Mapping

➜ 2 Character Trait Activities listing traits and supporting traits with text-based evidence
➜ 30 Text-Based Writing Prompts 3 prompts for each of the following types of writing:

• narrative
• persuasive / opinion
• descriptive
• expository / informative
• creative / story writing
• procedure / how-to
• list making
• letter / postcard writing
• poem
• book reviews

INCLUDED DIGITAL ACTIVITIES:

➜ 5 Teaching Slides to use for instruction (add questions, vocabulary, instructions, etc)

➜ 15 Student Pages for use in Google™️ Classroom or as editable files to create customized printables