The Very Hungry Second Grader

In my thematic unit called "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", I created a WebQuest where second grade students were asked to research, write and produce a story entitled, "The Very Hungry Second Grader." For the assignment, the teacher would video the students performing their story. I created a video to inspire the students by giving them an example of what they could create. In the WebQuest I asked the students to write about a second grader that after eating a few items went through a metamorphosis. In my video I started off with my nephews son Caleb who happens to be a second grader. Caleb eats some Austrian food (Wiener schnitzel)and goes to bed. The bed magically works like a cocoon and Caleb wakes up as a fourteen year old boy (my son Christopher). Christopher eats some more Austrian food and going to bed has the same effect on him. He wakes up as a 50 year old Austrian man (my husband Harald). I used video transitions to aid in the telling of the story. Between the slides of food I used a transition that looks like teeth chomping down on the food. In between the scenes that showed a metamorphosis I used a transition that looked like the hands of a clock moving to represent time passing. The last slide before the credits was created to lead into the next unit which will be on health. I wanted to get the kids thinking about the statement, "You are what you eat."
There are many more adaptations on-line of the very popular book written by Eric Carle. Most (unlike mine) stick close to the original story using similar characters and story line.

Monarch Cat by Vicki DeLoach from Flickr.com