Eric Carle Study Begins...

Today we started studying one of America's favorite authors, Eric Carle.  We began our study with The Very Busy Spider.  The children had a book talk, noticing lots of features about the book.  They noticed that it was a pattern book, that the noises that the animals made were onomatopoeia, that the book was fiction because it couldn't be real if the animals talked, that there was a pesky fly on every single page which must be a clue to the ending, that the setting was a barnyard, that the spider web got bigger as the story moved along, and a hundred other interesting little details. 

Mrs.  Ruark added her Science touch by telling the students that the spider inserts venom into the fly after it wraps it with thread and it's insides turn into a milkshake, so that the spider can suck the insides out, which leaves an exoskeleton!  You can imagine... the children were fascinated!

After talking about the story, the children played a Concentration game that required them to remember what each of the barnyard animals asked the spider to do.  This practice will help them retell the story in the days to come.  Make sure to ask your child all about our newest author and most interesting book!