Martina Staviaov

Reading with a child

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

The only person willing to take part in my homework was my boyfriend who cannot
speak English at all. So even though this is a very simple book, I had to point at the pictures
and be a little theatrical to make him understand. But I think that it worked and the story was
clear.
Reading to children can be very useful and motivating because when we choose
something suitable for their level, they will understand the story and feel good about
themselves. There were very basic words in my story (numbers, days of a week, food) so it
would be good as a revision of new vocabulary.
There are several follow-up activities coming on my mind:

I would work with the book and ask them questions (or let them ask questions) such
as: What happened on Sunday/Monday/Tuesday/ ...? How many apples are there? ...

to revise the vocabulary.

They could get one page each (one sentence), learn it and tell the story (e.g. in the

circle, they would go one by one, the one talking would stand up).
They could choose one part of the story and draw it and then share their pictures with

the others.
They could think of how would the story continue (this would be nice with older

learners, I guess)
Now I am thinking of a different activity to read a story, but stop before the end;
then let them think about the end discuss their ideas, and only after that to finish the
reading.