My brother (the amazing Augustus Augustus) gave Jane the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle this past Christmas and since then it has been a favorite! She loves to try and list off all the days of the week and excitedly shouts “Butterfly!” at the end. So I came up with an easy Hungry Caterpillar craft to encourage her enthusiasm.
This craft is super easy and suitable for any toddler/pre-k/kindergarten-aged kid.
As you can see, Jane’s caterpillar didn’t come out “perfect”. If I’m honest, I was tempted to make one myself to use as an example for this post. I didn’t though, because I want you to see just how easy this really is and that it doesn’t HAVE to look “just so” in the end as long as your kid has fun doing it and is, themselves, happy with the result.
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Materials for This Craft
- Half of an egg carton. Cut the “cups” out in a strip and trim around them so they sit nicely when placed upside down. Before starting, you should also use a pen to poke 2 little holes in the top for the antennas.
- Red and Green washable paint and paintbrushes
- 1 pipe cleaner. This is for the antennas, the book shows them as a purpley color but we used red.
- 2 googly eyes (the eyes can also just be painted on if you don’t have any)
Prep
Before jumping into the mess, I got the craft space prepped and set out the materials.
Then as step 1, we read the book together.
Usually, when we read this book our focus is on the days of the week or counting and naming all the foods. This time, I redirected her attention a little in preparation for the craft. Here are similar questions you can ask your kiddo as you read:
“What Color is the Caterpillar?”
“What Color is his Head?”
“Can you point to his antennas?”
“How many does he have?”
After reading the book, we got right to the craft.
The Hungry Caterpillar Craft
1: instruct your child to paint one section of the Hungry Caterpillar red, to be the bug’s head, and the rest of it green. I found it helpful to only offer 1 color at a time, otherwise she would have mixed them and made the entire thing brown haha. Also, I had her do green first, but I think starting with red might be easier. All said, It is OKAY if the colors get in the wrong place.
2: When the paint is dry, fold the pipe cleaner in half and have your child feed it from the bottom through the two holes. They might need a little help with this part. Then roll back the tops so they aren’t sharp and won’t fit back down through the holes. Add a drop of glue or tape to the underside if you need to.
3: Last step is to put a little glue on each googly eye (or if they’re sticky back, that’s even better) and have your child place them on the caterpillar’s face. Another option would be to have your child point to where the eyes should go and you place them, all depends on your kids age and skill level.
REMINDER: Give simple instructions and don’t over complicate it. Let your child take the lead.
I hope you and your kid love this simple craft as much as we did. Once everything is thoroughly dry you can either display is as art or let the artist play with it for a while. Jane carried it around for a couple days and enjoyed sitting on the couch with it, reading the book to herself and trying to remember all the days of the week.
Tag Me
Get some pictures of your Hungry Caterpillar Craft and Tag me on social media @thatmamachick so I can feature you in my stories! I love hearing from other mamas!
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