The Very Hungry Caterpillar
by Kim
Who doesn’t love an apple craft? We have a local apple festival here and the kids go nuts for anything apple at this time. This one is made from stuff around your house and apples.
First gather your supplies. You will need one apple, red paint, chenille stem, cereal loops, marker, piece of cardboard (we used a pizza box lid), and scissors.
Take your marker and draw an apple outline on your cardboard.
Cut your apple in half and squeeze out some red paint. I removed the seeds and the stem.
Let your child start stamping away. This was so much fun!
Once your child has filled in the apple by stamping, you can let it dry. Don’t worry about paint outside of the lines. They are little and you are going to cut out the apple any way.
While the apple is drying, instruct your child to thread the cereal loops onto the chenille stem. I let my daughter do it however, but this is a great time to introduce or practice patterns.
When they are done filling up the stem with cereal, thread one last one on the end. Bend the tip around and twist to secure the last loop. This will stop the others from coming off and makes a great “head”. Can you tell it is a worm yet?
I took a pencil and poked a hole into the cardboard, but you can use whatever you have around.
Push the open end of the stem into the hole. I wrapped the end around itself and the twisted the end into the loop to secure it.
Now you have an apple with a “real” worm coming out of it. My daughter really loved the craft. She has named her worm and insisted he get buckled into the van with the rest of us. She was refusing to pose for the shot. I am sure you have had those moments, too. 
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Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It.
Around our home we love to do handprint crafts. There is something so wonderful about using hands to create art in an unconventional way. You can celebrate caterpillars of all kinds with this simple handprint caterpillar craft. This is the perfect activity to accompany any book with caterpillars or the life cycle of a butterfly.
Gather your supplies. You’ll need a few items:
- Tempera paint (in a color of your choice, plus a little black)
- Paint brush (We prefer the wide tip sponge kind)
- Construction paper
- Little hands, of course
Here’s How:
- Start out by prepping your work area. Lay down something to protect your work surface.
- Get your paints ready. I pour about a palm-sized circle of paint on a shallow tray or pie pan. That way I can have multiple colors on one tray. This is just preference. Do what works for you. Just be sure to get everything ready before you bring your toddler or preschooler in on the process.
- Next, using simple and clear directions, instruct your child to open their hand flat (like they are making a “high-five”), palm facing up.
- Paint only the palm and not the fingers. Be generous with the paint. Making sure to get all the side and crevicesN
- Paint the fingers up to the knuckle, black
- Remind them to keep their hand open and flat.
- Next, holding their wrist in one hand and their finger tips in the other, lay their hand flat on the piece of construction paper.
- While their hand is still down, press gently on the center of the back of the hand and all the fingertips.
- Lift the hand straight up.
- Repeat 4-5 times, the 5th time leave off the black fingers to make the head.
- Once dry, paint on two antennae and an eye and a smile, if desired.
by Eric Carle
( Caterpillar wrestling @ 6 months)
Yes you read that right this funky little caterpillar from the book we all know and love ( I read it 3 times yesterday) is 40 years old. Today March 20th is Very Hungry Caterpillar Day . Over the years I have used this for teaching so many things, healthy eating, days of the week, and of course the life cycle of a butterfly! Here are some of our activities you could do to celebrate.
How we are celebrating !
My son and I also love to act out the story with a felt board, ours isn’t being made anymore but you can find one just like it here !
This is an easy and fun way to practice learning the letters in their names, or you can number the sections and have your preschooler put the numbers in order!
- Gather your materials. You will need some constriction paper, something to trace a circle with, crayons or markers, a pipe cleaner, tape , scissors and glue.
- Start by tracing and cutting out circles in different color construction paper , you will need one for each letter, and one for the face.
- Give your child a full size piece of construction paper and have them color it, they can draw a cool backyard scene or something more abstract!
- If your child is able have them write the letters, even if they are messy and too small or to big- it’s more important that they do it if able and it not be perfect than us stepping in and doing it “right”.
- If your child is not writing yet, while they color write out the letters, and do a face on the extra circle.
- Spread some glue on the background paper.
- Pop the letters on.* Sorry no picture, it was an art playdate and I was talking too much and forgot to take a picture of this step !
- Bend the pipe cleaner into fun antennae
- Tape it to the back of the face circle.
Video
Sittin’ on a fence post chomping on my gum
( chomp chomp chomp)
Playing with my yo yo
woo woo
When along came Herman the worm
And he was THIS big
And I said ” Herman WHAT happened?”
And he said ” I ate my sister! “
The next 3 verses substitute in brother, mother and father.
The final verse is as follows:
Sittin’ on a fence post chomping on my gum
(chomp chomp chomp)
Playing with my yo yo
woo woo
When along came Herman the worm
And he was this tiny
And I said ” Herman what happened?”
And he said ” I burped.”
Books!
