The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle celebrates it’s 45th anniversary this year. The book was originally published on 3rd June 1969 and 45 years later it is still a favourite with children around the world.
So In celebration of this incredible book I decided to go on search of some Very Hungry Caterpillar activities and here are a few.
This activity is one of my favourites that I have found, if you love using props to bring stories to life try this Very Hungry Caterpillar sock puppet .
Here is another caterpillar prop that can be used during the story, as well as for counting and fine motor skills.
If your looking for something to improve critical thinking why not try a Very Hungry Caterpillar puzzle. This activity can be used in a variety of ways, you can start it as a mark making activity and as well as being a puzzle you put together you can use it to talk about shapes and colour as well as using it as a counting activity. If you want a little less prep time use paper plates.
If your looking for some more mark making activities, here are two painting activities for making some caterpillars, cup painting and balloon painting.
And last but not least here is a page that I found on Facebook called toddler approved and it’s full of fun activities including 25 Very Hungry Caterpillar activities .
I hope you find something on this post to help you to celebrate one of my all time favourite books in your settings but if not how about a live butterfly garden. They aren’t expensive and you can buy them quite easily online. You get a small container with 5 caterpillars in and it contains all the food they’ll need before they make their chrysalis better known as a cocoon.The container has a window on so the children can see everything going on inside. Once they have attached themselves in their cocoons to the lid of the container, you take the lid off and attach it to the inside of the butterfly garden (which is actually a large cylinder net) with the safety pins provided. The children can seem the transformation take place and eventually the caterpillars come out of their cocoons as beautiful butterfly, you can feed them fruit for a few days and then the children can help to set them free. It is fascinating for the children to watch and setting them free can be an adventure in itself, whether you set them free or go to your local park or local woods.
A nice little song to go with this is
Incy wincy caterpillar(in the tune of Incy wincy spider)
Incy wincy caterpillar crawling on a leaf
Spun a little chrysalis and then he went to sleep
While he was asleep he dreamt that he could fly
and when he woke up he was a butterfly.
If your looking for more books about butterflies and caterpillars, one of my current favours is Monkey Puzzle by Julia Donaldson. Monkey Puzzle is a fantastic book that is about a little monkey who has lost his mum and dad and a butterfly helps him to find them. The confusion begins because the butterfly doesn’t realise the monkeys mum and dad look like him because as she later says ‘none of my babies look like me’, her babies still being caterpillars. It is a lovely book that you can use to talk about caterpillars and their transform to being butterflies. You could also use it to talk about diversity and families and communities such as ‘do you look your mum or dad?’, this could include a mark making activities such family portraits or self portraits. You can also you can use it to learn about rhyming words, as you can do with a lot of Julia Donaldson books.
What was your favourite book as a child?
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Love, Kylie x
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