Charlie the Caterpillar Book Companion May PreK K 1st 2nd Special Ed

About this resource

One theme, one week. Read the same caterpillar-and-butterfly story every day at circle time, and

pull one simple activity after the read-aloud each day — sort, count, find the letter, ask a

friend to play, then build a craft. Every student page has one short instruction with a picture,

so a paraprofessional can run the room from it too.

This theme pairs well with *Charlie the Caterpillar* by Dom DeLuise. Not affiliated with the

author or publisher; you need your own copy of the book. Nothing from the book is reproduced

here — no text, no illustrations, and the caterpillar character is never drawn.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (57 pages)

• 1 Start Here week plan: what to do after the read-aloud each day, plus what else it practices
• 1 book-and-words page (naming the read-aloud once, with the not-affiliated line), an original

circle-time chant ("A New Friend," written for this unit — no song or story text is reprinted),

and the 9 circle-time vocabulary words

• 9 smartboard slides for whole-group circle time on a projector or interactive board: name the

pictures, sort, count (3 slides), the letter hunt, the life skill in order, and the core word

• 9 circle-time vocabulary cards to cut out and use at the carpet (caterpillar, egg, leaf, flower,

butterfly, sun, ball, swing, friend)

• Day 1, Sort (caterpillar/butterfly thing or not?), at 3 levels: Level 1 errorless matching,

Level 2 the standard two-group sort, Level 3 a third group added (caterpillar thing, bug, or

toy) — 10 cut-and-glue pieces on every level

• Day 2, Count and glue the number, at 3 levels: Levels 1 and 2 count 1–5 (5 rows, a 5-piece

numeral strip to cut and glue); Level 3 counts 6–10 and writes the number, no cutting

• Day 3, Letter C, at 3 levels: Level 1 glues 5 matching C's, Level 2 finds C among 10 look-alike

letters, Level 3 says 10 pictures aloud and glues the 5 that start with the /c/ sound

• Writing, at 3 levels: Level 1 traces the big letters, Level 2 traces letters and the word,

Level 3 writes the letters and the word independently on primary lines

• Day 4, a life-skill sequencing page (asking a friend to play): 5 picture pieces (4 real steps —

walk over, say hi, ask to play, play together — first/next/then/last, plus 1 that does not

belong)

• Day 5, a book craft: color and cut a 6-piece caterpillar-to-butterfly craft (a big friendly

butterfly with wing patterns to color, a caterpillar, an egg on a leaf, a chrysalis hanging from a

twig, a leaf and a flower), then glue them into a line-art garden scene; every cut is a straight

line, and a small color model shows the finished craft

• 2 fine motor pages: a tracing-paths page (4 dashed paths from the caterpillar to a flower:

straight, wave, zigzag, loops) and a cutting-practice page (4 strips, easiest first)

• 4 core-word pages for the word of the week, "like": a big word card for the talker or core

board, a 12-word find-and-circle grid (6 of the 12 are the target word), a heart to color, and

10 things a child might like to do with a friend to cut and glue onto it

• 1 "Who Did What This Week" data page (one row per student, a prompt-level code for each day —

handy for IEP notes and progress reports)

• 1 family letter to send home on Day 1
• 1 credits page (art and font licenses)
• Ink-saver twins of 19 picture-based student pages (the craft and pure-coloring pages are

color-only) in outline art for a photocopier, so the color pages above are optional, not required

Three Levels On Every Academic Task

Sort, count, letters and writing each come in three levels, marked with a small shape instead of

a number so children don't compare theirs to a neighbor's: a circle for starting (errorless

matching), a square for building (the standard task), a triangle for ready for more (a real step

up — a third sort group, 6–10 counting with writing, or beginning sounds).

Cutting Built For Small Hands

Every cutting page carries 5 or more pieces, lined up edge to edge so each cut is one straight

line. Pre-cut them yourself for students who are not cutting independently yet.

Color Or Ink-Saver

Print the color pages, or use the ink-saver twins at the back on a photocopier — most

picture-based student pages have both (the craft and pure-coloring pages are color-only by

design).

Who This Is For

Any teacher starting a self-contained preschool or early childhood special education classroom

who wants a whole week of circle time, ready to pull and go: one theme, a different simple

activity every day.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A print-and-go weekly theme unit built around a caterpillar-and-butterfly theme. It is not a

claim about any student's age, diagnosis, or rate of progress, and it does not reproduce any

book, its text, or its artwork — no character art is drawn here, only our own generic caterpillar,

butterfly and flower pictures.