My 2 and half year old daughter and her little brother love to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It is slowly becoming one of our favorite books, so I thought this would be the perfect way to combine reading and crafts while promoting and developing motor skills.
For this project you will need:
- Cardboard egg carton
- Paint (for edible paint, my go to recipe is food coloring and yogurt)
- Paint brush
- Pipe cleaner
- Googly eyes (optional)
- Glue
Take the egg cartons and cut them so each child has a section to paint, encourage your child to attach pipe cleaners for antennas and glue eyes on.
My 1 and half year old son (Yep! they are a 1 year apart), painted his caterpillar (partially) and ran off to play with a Melissa & Doug Caterpillar Gear Toy that I had taken out for him. It promotes color recognition, hand/eye coordination and fine motor skills.
In the mean while as an extension I printed out the fruit to reinforce/teach fruit names, colors and numbers. Once her caterpillar was dry (one day later) she decided to “feed” her caterpillar
However for younger children you could create an object permanence game by allowing them to put the printed fruits into an object (I used an empty wipe case).
Other fun activities we will be doing that are related to The very hungry caterpillar are lacing the leaf, and making a hand painted butterfly.
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Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
This is great! I think I’ll have to borrow this idea for my college graded unit actually. It’s so simple yet you can cover so much of the curriculum with the book.
Wow! This took me right back! I remember doing this when I was a child and I’m now 45 with children and grandchildren of my own! Thanks for reminding me! Definitely going to do this!