Eric Carle Unit

We have just finished our Eric Carle unit.  Eric Carle is the author/illustrator of many beloved children's books such as, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me.  We had several goals for this unit, including developing reading comprehension strategies such as questioning, schema, and retelling/summarizing.

In week one, we created “I wonder” statements as we read A House for Hermit Crab and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “I wonder” statements are a starting point for asking meaningful questions as we read. Readers who ask questions are not only more engaged as they read, they also form more meaning as they strive to find answers to their own questions.

In week two, we made connections to the story Pancakes, Pancakes!  This is a story of a boy who lives on a farm long ago and wants to make pancakes.  Drawing connections falls under the reading comprehension strategy of schema.  Drawing connections helps use internalize what we have read, as it becomes more meaningful to us.  There are text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections.  We mostly focused on text-to-self connections.  In preparation for the reading, we made our own pancakes in the Discovery Room in the GLC.  Thank you to all the parents to volunteered their time to make this happen.  Students were asked to be mindful and use their senses to gather as much sensory information about making pancakes as they could.  That way, when we read the story, they could visualize and imagine more details.  They also participated in making the pancakes, so when we read the story, they could compare and contrast how we make pancakes in modern day to how people, like in the story, made pancakes long ago.

In week three, we learned the important parts of a retelling as we read Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me.  We learned that a good retelling includes the characters, setting, what happened, and the ending.  We also reviewed the reading strategy of questioning, as this fictitious story brought up a lot of great questions about the moon.  They were given some non-fiction books to try to answer some of their questions.

Throughout the unit, students also learned about Eric Carle as an illustrator.  Eric Carle's bright illustrations are made primarily from collage.  Students practiced different watercolor techniques to make a variety of papers.  They then cut those papers to create an animal.  We then compiled the pictures to make our very own book modeled after Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  We will be sending the book to Student Treasures Publishing group to be published next week.  If you would like a copy of this special keepsake, please fill out the slip and envelope that was sent home in this week's homework.  Even if you do not wish to order a copy, please fill out the slip and check "No, I do not wish to order a copy" and sign your name.  We need all the slips returned for the class to receive a free book to keep in the classroom.  Thank you! :)