Author Overview: Eric CarleDuration: 6-8 lessonsGrade: K

CORE COMPETENCIES

LANGUAGE ARTS BIG IDEAS

1: Language and stories can be a source of creativity and joy. / 2: God’s Word helps us learn about ourselves and our families. / 3: Stories can be told through pictures and words. / 4: Everyone can be a reader
and can create stories.
5: God’s Word is the Ultimate Love Story.
Everyone has a unique story. / 6: Playing with language helps us discover how language works. / 7: Listening and speaking builds our understanding and helps us learn.
Language Arts Curricular Competencies
Comprehend and connect (reading, listening, viewing):
●Use sources of information and prior knowledge to make meaning
●Use developmentally appropriate reading, listening, and viewing strategies to make meaning
●Explore foundational concepts of print, oral, and visual texts
●Engage actively as listeners, viewers, and readers, as appropriate, to develop understanding of self, identity, and community
●Recognize the importance of story in personal, family, and community identity
●Use personal experience and knowledge to connect to stories and other texts to make meaning
●Recognize the structure of story
Create and communicate (writing, speaking, representing):
●Exchange ideas and perspectives to build shared understanding
●Use language to identify, create, and share ideas, feelings, opinions, and preferences
●Create stories and other texts to deepen awareness of self, family, and community
●Plan and create stories and other texts for different purposes and audience
●Explore oral storytelling processes
Cross-Curricular (BC) Competencies Links
Science:
● Demonstrate curiosity and a sense of wonder about the world
●Observe objects and events in familiar contexts
● Ask simple questions about familiar objects and events
● Experience and interpret the local environment
● Represent observations and ideas by drawing charts and simple pictographs
● Share observations and ideas orally
Arts:
●Explore elements, processes, materials, movements, technologies, tools, and techniques of the arts
●Create artistic works collaboratively and as an individual, using ideas inspired by imagination, inquiry, experimentation, and purposeful play
●Explore artistic expressions of themselves and community through creative processes
●Develop processes and technical skills in a variety of art forms to nurture motivation, development, and imagination
●Express feelings, ideas, stories, observations, and experiences through the arts
●Experience, document and share creative works in a variety of ways
Math:
●Use reasoning to explore and make connections
●Model mathematics in contextualized experiences
●Develop, demonstrate, and apply mathematical understanding through play, inquiry, and problem solving
●Visualize to explore mathematical concepts
●Use mathematical vocabulary and language to contribute to mathematical discussions
●Represent mathematical ideas in concrete, pictorial, and symbolic forms
●Connect mathematical concepts to each other and to other areas and personal interests
Career:
●Identify and appreciate their personal attributes, skills, interests, and accomplishment
● Recognize the importance of positive relationships in their lives
●Share ideas, information, personal feelings, and knowledge with others
●Work respectfully and constructively with others to achieve common goals
Title / Teaching Strategies/Methods / Assessment Strategies/Methods
The Very Mixed Up Chameleon / ●Make a flip book as a class (draw a head, body and legs of different animals or use a photo of each child for the head). Another option:take full-length photos of each child; divide into head/body/legs
●Think of words that combine one animal with another (eg. elegator or hippoion).
●Paint a mixed – up picture
●Class book or journal: “I’m as ____ as a _____.” Brainstorm ideas, illustrate
●Make a transparency of the chameleon. Cut out chameleon and staple onto a popsicle stick. Blend in with clothes, the wall, books, desks, shoes, hair, puzzles etc…
●Tissue paper art - see illustration /
The Very Hungry Caterpillar / ●Learn the days of the week.
●Great sequencing and counting.
●Make caterpillars, cocoons and butterflies.
●board game - The Very Hungry Caterpillar
●watch“You Tube”versions
●butterfly colouring pages - try different mediums such as pastels or finger paint
●Cumulative activity - Very Hungry Caterpillar Party-invite
parents to help mann different stations. Each child bring
a sample of food found in the book. Start with taste test,
encouraging students to try a “new” food. Different
stations could include book corner, caterpillar/butterfly
crafts, games /

The Very Grouchy Ladybug / ●craft - paper plates, black/white paper cutouts, paint
●“Write-around-the-room” - look for book characters/names posted on class walls; copy words on paper (clip boards work well)
●See link for printable worksheets
/
The Tiny Seed / ●Create a poster of a large flower - teach parts of a plant- (roots (crayon), stem (green paper), leaves (green paper), flower (muffin cups). Can add details to show plant needs: sun, rain
●discuss what causes the demise of each seed. (Ex. bird needing food, child picking the flower, no longer getting what it needs to survive, etc.) Pretend to be the seed and write the adventure from seed to plant. Use sunflower seeds to illustrate story (beg/middle/end).
●Plant a “mystery” flower seed. Predict what kind of flower will grow. Observe daily and keep a simple picture chart to show changes on day 5, 10, 15 etc. /
Ten Little Rubber Ducks / ●Make a counting book
●Matching - numbered ducks to sets (see illustration)
●Cut and paste - glue numbered ducks in a row
●Brainstorm: Ducks can / have / are /eat /
Walter the Baker / ●Roll out play-dough to create own letter/design
●Make a chef’s hat (see link)
●Journals - What can a pretzel shape become in a picture?
● /

The Very Quiet Cricket / ●tissue paper art - use glitter glue for legs/antennae
●Journals - What can you do now that you couldn’t do when you were little?
●Sequencing (see illustration) /
Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me / ●Art project with reading buddies or parental help:
Day 1 - paint streaks of 2 tones of blue across a large sheet of paper. Cut out back portrait of self and crescent moon.
Day 2 - use popsicle sticks to make ladder. Add moon and body. Add sticker stars.
/
Author Biography: / List of Books:

Biographical Notes for Eric Carle

Eric Carle is acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and innovatively designed picture books for very young children. His best-known work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has eaten its way into the hearts of literally millions of children all over the world and has been translated into 62 languages and sold over 44 million copies. Since the Caterpillar was published in 1969, Eric Carle has illustrated more than seventy books, many best sellers, most of which he also wrote, and more than 139 million copies of his books have sold around the world.
Born in Syracuse, New York, in 1929, Eric Carle moved with his parents to Germany when he was six years old; he was educated there, and graduated from the prestigious art school, the Akademie der bildenden Künste, in Stuttgart. But his dream was always to return to America, the land of his happiest childhood memories. So, in 1952, with a fine portfolio in hand and forty dollars in his pocket, he arrived in New York. Soon he found a job as a graphic designer in the promotion department of The New York Times. Later, he was the art director of an advertising agency for many years.
One day, respected educator and author, Bill Martin Jr, called to ask Carle to illustrate a story he had written. Martin’s eye had been caught by a striking picture of a red lobster that Carle had created for an advertisement. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was the result of their collaboration. It is still a favorite with children everywhere. This was the beginning of Eric Carle’s true career. Soon Carle was writing his own stories, too. His first wholly original book was 1,2,3 to the Zoo, followed soon afterward by the celebrated classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Eric Carle’s art is distinctive and instantly recognizable. His artwork is created in collage technique, using hand-painted papers, which he cuts and layers to form bright and cheerful images. Many of his books have an added dimension—die-cut pages, twinkling lights as in The Very Lonely Firefly, even the lifelike sound of a cricket’s song as in The Very Quiet Cricket - giving them a playful quality: a toy that can be read, a book that can be touched. Children also enjoy working in collage and many send him pictures they have made themselves, inspired by his illustrations. He receives hundreds of letters each week from his young admirers.
The secret of Eric Carle’s books’ appeal lies in his intuitive understanding of and respect for children, who sense in him instinctively someone who shares their most cherished thoughts and emotions.
The themes of his stories are usually drawn from his extensive knowledge and love of nature—an interest shared by most small children. Besides being beautiful and entertaining, his books always offer the child the opportunity to learn something about the world around them. It is his concern for children, for their feelings and their inquisitiveness, for their creativity and their intellectual growth that, in addition to his beautiful artwork, makes the reading of his books such a stimulating and lasting experience.
Carle says: “With many of my books I attempt to bridge the gap between the home and school. To me home represents, or should represent; warmth, security, toys, holding hands, being held. School is a strange and new place for a child. Will it be a happy place? There are new people, a teacher, classmates—will they be friendly?
I believe the passage from home to school is the second biggest trauma of childhood; the first is, of course, being born. Indeed, in both cases we leave a place of warmth and protection for one that is unknown. The unknown often brings fear with it. In my books I try to counteract this fear, to replace it with a positive message. I believe that children are naturally creative and eager to learn. I want to show them that learning is really both fascinating and fun.”
Eric Carle has two grown-up children, a son and a daughter. He divides his time between the Florida Keys and the hills of North Carolina.
Click here for a list of Awards Eric Carle has won for his work
(If you are interested in more complete biography of Eric, please refer to the autobiography section of The Art of Eric Carle published by Philomel Books.)
Photo credit: Paul Shoul
/ Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?
1 2 3 To the Zoo
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Pancakes, Pancakes
The Very Tiny Seed
Do you Want to be my Friend?
Rooster’s off to See the World
The Very Long Tail
The Secret Birthday Message
Walter the Baker
Have you seen my Cat?
I See a Song
My Very First Book of Numbers (Colours, Shapes, Words)
All About Arthur
The Mixed-up Chameleon
Eric Carle story book: Seven Tales by the Brothers Grimm
The Grouchy Ladybug
Watch out! A Giant!
Seven Stories by Hans Christian Anderson
Twelve Tales from Aesop
The HoneyBee and the Robber
Catch the Ball!
What’s for Lunch?
The Very Busy Spider
All Around Us
Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me
All in a Day
A House for Hermit Crab
The Very Quiet Cricket
Draw Me a Star
Today is Monday
My Apron
The Very Lonely Firefly
Little Cloud
From Head to Toe
Hello Red Fox
The Very Clumsy Click Beetle
Does a Kangaroo have a Mother too?
Dream Snow
Slowly, Slowly Slowly said the Sloth
Where are you going? To see my Friend!
Mr Seahorse
Ten Little Rubber Ducks
The Rabbit and the Turtle
The Artist who Painted a Blue Horse
Friends
What’s your favorite Animal?
The Nonsense Show