Kids Corner – The Very Hungry Caterpillar

D38DA7D0-3FFF-42B0-A803-A7C6D9B19005_4_5005_cOne of the favorite books of my day care kids was the very hungry caterpillar by Eric Carle. 

If you have this book spring time is a great time to read it again and do some crafts associated with the book.  It is a story of a caterpillar who is very hungry and each day he eats through one more item than the day before then various other items of food until finally one day he eats a green leaf and decides he is full.  At this point he is very fat and forms a cocoon.

An easy craft to make for the beginning part of the story is an egg carton caterpillar.  Cut an egg carton in half lengthwise and let the kids decorate it with paint, stickers, pompoms whatever you have around the house.   Add some pipe cleaner antennae if you have pipe cleaners. 

Take a break and have a snack of some ants on a log.  This is an easy and health snack and so easy to make.  Spread some peanut butter in the center of a celery stalk and add a line of raisin “ants”. 

Now on with the story, after 2 weeks the very hungry caterpillar emerges from the cocoon but now he is a beautiful butterfly!  So let’s make some bright and colorful butterflies.  For this you will need 2 coffee filters and either food color, water color paint or water soluble markers. 

Put down some paper to protect the table and flatten the coffee filters on the paper.  You can then either put drops of food coloring or water color paint on the filters in a random pattern.  Or you can color on them with the marker and mist lightly with water so the colors bleed together.  If using the markers you can also fold up the filters, color on them and mist with water, this gives more of a tie dye effect. 

Let the filters dry and then use a clothes pin as the body, gathering the edges of the filters together.  You can add pipe cleaner antennae and even a magnet on the bank so you can hang it on the fridge.