Use this strategy to see if students understand what is being read. Stop after each page and then ask, “Who is the story about and what is happening? When you get to the part where the caterpillar is eating through the fruit, you could stop to check for understanding after 2 or 3 pages since the text is repeating itself. Continue to check for understanding throughout the rest of the book.

This book would be great to use for connecting with text. We have all seen caterpillars and butterflies before, so I think it would be easy for children to relate too. After reading page 3, ask the students, “What do we already know about caterpillars?” Make a list on chart paper so the children can see all the things they already know.

There is a lot of repetitive text throughout the book that make it a great book for teaching fluency. To teach this strategy, first demonstrate what a good reading pace should sound like. Then read part of the text too slow and then too fast. Ask the class which way sounds the best. Last we will read the text all the way through, and then reread it three or four times until we think we have read the text smoothly and with expression.

Model how your voice should sound with the different types of punctuation at the end of sentences. Throughout the text, there are places where the author uses an exclamation point. Talk to your class about what your voice should sound like if the sentence ends in an exclamation point. Model a few different ways; monotone, softly, and excited. Page 16 gives a good example of this: “That night he had a stomachache!”