Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Charlie the Caterpillar will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of friendship, bullying and teasing, this Charlie the Caterpillar picture book by Dom Deluise is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with Charlie the Caterpillar Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Charlie the Caterpillar. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with Charlie the Caterpillar reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
CHARLIE THE CATERPILLAR SUMMARY
Charlie was a young caterpillar who was excited to explore the world! When he set out exploring he came across some monkeys playing cards and asked if he could join. The monkeys told Charlie he couldn’t play because he was an ugly caterpillar. The comment made Charlie feel bad but he continued exploring. Next, he came across rabbits playing tennis and asked if he could play. Just like the monkeys, the rabbits said no because he was an ugly caterpillar. This made Charlie feel really bad. When he came across mice playing miniature golf, Charlie once again asked if he could play. The mice told Charlie they didn’t play with ugly caterpillars which caused him to start feeling ugly.
Charlie was sad and tired so he climbed up into a branch. He made himself a cocoon and took a nap. While he was sleeping, Charlie dreamed of having a best friend he could play with. When he awoke, Charlie was surprised to find he had turned into a beautiful butterfly! He began flying around and came across the animals he’d met previously. This time, everyone wanted to play with the beautiful butterfly, but Charlie couldn’t be bothered.
Later, Charlie saw Katie the caterpillar crying. She was upset no one wanted to play with her because she was an ugly caterpillar. Charlie was more than happy to play with Katie and be her friend. In fact, they became best friends and Charlie told her about becoming a caterpillar. The two new friends enjoyed playing cards, tennis and miniature golf together. Finally, Charlie’s dream of having a best friend had come true.
CHARLIE THE CATERPILLAR LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for Charlie the Caterpillar, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based Charlie the Caterpillar reading comprehension questions focus on:
- analyzing character
- cause and effect
- comparing and contrasting
- identifying theme | message | moral
- summarizing / retelling
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- friendship
- bullying | teasing
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- antonyms
- adjectives
- irregular verbs
- prepositions
CHARLIE THE CATERPILLAR ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for Charlie the Caterpillar?
- Lexile® Measure: AD540L
- Guided Reading Level: N
- DRA Level: 28
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Dom Deluise. It was illustrated by Christopher Santoro.
What genre is Charlie the Caterpillar?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 40 pages long.
