English Reception Summer Labels, Captions and Simple Report Sequences

Animal Lifecycles

Explore the lifecycle of a butterfly and a frog by sharing the books The Hungry Caterpillar and Tadpole's Promise. Have a go at retelling and sequencing events, as well as writing a simple report. Get creative with jelly frogspawn and butterfly collages.

Animal changes (suggested as 5 days)

Active Learning

  1. The Hungry Caterpillar
  2. Caterpillar lifecycle
  3. Sequencing words
  4. Retelling The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Creating and Thinking Critically

  1. Favourite food lists
  2. Food match-up
  3. Lifecycle sentences
  4. From caterpillar to butterfly

Exploring and Playing

  1. Role-play
  2. Caterpillar maths
  3. Colourful butterfly
  4. Caterpillar construction

Books to Share

  1. Enjoy The Very Hungry Caterpillar.. Discuss the foods the children like best/least: include seasonal foods and the foods used in personal or communal celebrations.
  2. Read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Learn Days of the Week (resources). Next, read the days of the week and order them (resources). Discuss what clubs/activities children enjoy doing in the week.
  3. Display contents page from Caterpillars and Butterflies. Say non-fiction books don’t need to be read in order. Select and read a page. Notice features, e.g. heading, picture, caption.
  4. Select a page from Caterpillars and Butterflies. Identify the textual features, and then read the sentences aloud. Discuss & define interesting topic words in the text, e.g. pupa, proboscis.
  5. Display a range of pictures from Caterpillars and Butterflies. Discuss what they show. Develop & rehearse captions for one or more. Write them using correct punctuation.

Poetry/Rhyme of the Week: The Caterpillar, by Ian Larmont (resources)
Share poem. Rehearse at suitable times throughout the week, e.g. start/end of day. Help children to refine the actions associated with the poem. Vary pitch/tone of voice to stress words and phrases.

You Will Need

Essential text
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
by Eric Carle

Resources
Baby clinic role-play equipment
Paints, collage materials
Painted or plain wood clothes pegs, tiny coloured pompoms, googly eyes, PVA glue