Eric Carle and New Eric Carle Prezi

Every year I look forward to my Eric Carle unit.  I use his books throughout the year, but do an actual Author Study using his books in spring. 

One summer, I taught a Summer School class called "Reading and Writing with Eric Carle."  I was so excited,  and extra excited because my sister was going to help me!  The first day, as my sister waited in the lobby for the last of the stragglers to arrive, a mom was sort of hanging around waiting.  My sister asked if she needed anything else, and the mom said, "No, I am just waiting to see this Eric Carle guy."  I won't ever forget that, because I guess I had lived in my "Kindergarten Bubble" just assuming everybody knew Eric Carle!
 He never did show up...   so I had to teach the class.

We always start the year with color review and a take home book of Brown Bear, Brown Bear that we color for morning work.  This year, we read From Head to Toe in the beginning of the year, and we talked about things we CAN do.  I took each child's picture holding the "I" and "can" card and put the pictures around our class reminders. We did an interactive writing lesson with our "I can" statements. 

My sister worked in a Kindergarten classroom and she made this class book.  I love how she made the background of the photographs look "Eric Carlish."  I am going to try this next year!

When we learn the letter "O,"  we read Eric Carle's Opposites book as one of our many books.
 
                                                                            

We make a class Opposites book of our own!  Class books are one of our favorite things.  The children choose to look at them over and over, and can take them home to share.  It gives families a chance to see and hear about classroom friends, too.   Our class books are very loved.  I just laminate regular copy paper and use book rings to hold them together.  They hold up really well.

I  made an  Author Study for Eric Carle, which includes the Prezi, 17 Writing Prompts for 11 of Eric Carle's books (plus 14 prompts to use with any book), and QR Codes for each book!

I love this packet because when I do the author study, we make a book putting all of our prompts together.  It's a great review of all of his books for the kids, too!  I hope you found some fun ideas to use in your classroom.

Each one I make I think is my favorite, but this one may REALLY be it.   For the Prezi, I spent hours looking at every Eric Carle site and video I could find, and put together what I thought were the best ones to go with 20 different Eric Carle books! The books include: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Busy Spider, The Mixed Up Chameleon, The Tiny Seed, The Little Cloud, Draw Me a Star, Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me, A House for Hermit Crab, The Very Lonely Firefly, The Very Clumsy Click Beetle, The Very Quiet Cricket, Mister Seahorse, Pancakes, Pancakes, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?(with Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?), Hello, Red Fox, Today is Monday, From Head to Toe, My Apron.

 I have wanted my website resources for my Eric Carle together in one place, so now I have that.  I included the link to The Caterpillar Exchange (Eric Carle's official site)  for each specific book with lots of ideas and links to Pinterest boards/pins for each, so you can use the Eric Carle Prezi whenever you get a chance to look at different ideas for each book. 

I love that we are able to combine so much ELA and science with his books, and I included science videos that go with the appropriate books.    The sample book is Little Cloud.  I thought that would be a good choice for "April Showers" and for Earth Day coming up.  This will give you an idea of what the other books include. ( Warning- "The Water Cycle" song will go through your head all day!   :)

Thank you for visiting!  Happy Teaching!