Chinese

This lesson was created for a Chinese immersion class as part of a unit on the four stages of a butterfly’s life. The unit introduces relevant vocabulary in Chinese, such as caterpillar, butterfly, metamorphosis, cocoon, (callus), and egg. This lesson connects science and math with Chinese literacy development. This lesson in the unit focuses on the popular children’s picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. The book was originally written in English but has been translated into many different languages, including Chinese. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is fictional rather than scientifically accurate, but plays off of the butterfly life stages and thus provides a literary glimpse at everyday scientific concepts with which the students are becoming familiar. At the same time, many of the linguistic resources in the text – e.g. the numbers, days of the week, food items, etc. – offer an opportunity for comparing and contrasting Chinese and English expressions.

Texts, Genres & Practices

• “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” picture book

Cultural Knowledge & Mindset

• The scientific focus of the lesson, means that the focus is largely on processes that seem to transcend culture, but some of the everyday expressions bring in opportunities for cultural comparison.
• In addition the continued expression of the caterpillar’s feelings can enable younger learners to express their feelings in their daily lives.

Language Use & Language Play

• The story plays with the life cycle of the butterfly, a story that will be familiar to many young children. In this way, the primary type of play if genre play, in the blending of scientific text and children’s story.
• There is also a frequent use of repetition, which creates a sound play when the story is read aloud, as story books are meant to be. This includes:
  • Repetition about past tense 了 (sound play)
  • The repetition of describing caterpillar’s physical appearance ( 又___又___) and experience (肚子好饿，肚子好痛) (narrative play)
• Finally, there is visual play in the use of images to express the caterpillar’s transformation process and his feelings.