Hungry Caterpillars

EVERYONE LOVES ERIC CARLE!

One of Eric Carle's best loved books is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Many children can "read" this book long before they can actually read because of the colorful illustrations and repetition.

This special book lends itself to some great follow up art, eating activities, and discussions of the cycle of a butterfly.

Your child can make his/her own caterpillar out of a cardboard egg carton:

• An adult needs to cut apart a cardboard egg carton. The length can be all 6 sections of one side.

                                                 

• The child can paint the caterpillar any colors they want!
• Add eyes with paint, markers, or google eyes.
• Add antenna with a pipe cleaner, a twist tie, or a thin piece from the leftover carton by poking holes in the head and weaving the antenna through them. 

                                                     

Another way to make a larger caterpillar is to let your child either paint with a brush or finger-paint several small round paper plates. If you want to keep in Eric Carle's still, you could also let your child tear  or cut pieces of wrapping tissue paper - all different colors or the same color - and glue them on to cover the plates.  One plate will need to be decorated as the head. Antenna can either be painted on or something attached to make them 3-D. Then you connect them with staples or twist ties, and voila, you have a caterpillar!

What fun to take the foods in the book and decide to buy or make them throughout the week to eat, just like the caterpillar. Obviously, some of them are inedible for us, so skip or substitute for those. have the caterpillar your child created to join the table!

Be on the lookout not only for caterpillars but also butterflies. They are pretty easy to find with all the flowers blooming. Children love the story of how butterflies change from caterpillars into the beautiful creatures we call butterflies so be sure to talk about the process and what an amazing gift from God that is.