After reading Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, students, as a class, write a spin off book of their own entitled The Very Hungry First Grader.

Generating text choices to fill in the frame below with he or she and foods, can be done as a class or small group activity. Two books can be written to accommodate the gender of the main character pronoun (he/she). Occasionally, students seem to enjoy working in a gender specific group.

The Very Hungry First Grader

In September, ____(he/she) ate one __________.

In, October, ____he/she ate two _____________.

In November, ____he/she ate three _____________.

In December, ____he/she ate four _____________.

In January, ____he/she ate five _____________.

In February, ____he/she ate six _____________.

In March, ____he/she ate seven _____________.

In April, ___he/she ate eight _____________.

In May, ____he/she ate nine _____________.

In June and July ____ he/she grew and grew and became a second grader!

Having generated a list of things the first grader ate, students can begin writing their own individual versions of the story by completing a pre-printed frame of the story. Another option is to have pairs of students co-write and co-illustrate a single page to be gathered and bound into a class version of the story. Time available is generally the deciding factor, although this kind of work fits nicely into independent Literacy Center work time.