Our little one has been really interested in bugs lately, from afar, like her Mama! She loves to look at picture books of bugs, name each bug and looking for bugs outside. Her favourites are butterflies, grasshoppers (which she loves to find in the grass and we hop along with them - we try to catch them but they are fast and Mama & Dad hesitate a bit of course haha, we used to catch them when we were kids too) and she likes bees and flies from a distance.
I have been wanting to add The Very Hungry Caterpillar themed activities to her shelves and recently did, so finally today on the blog, I will be sharing a few themed Caterpillar-inspired activity ideas that we love.
We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar book and watched the read aloud book/movie on Youtube. Another great idea is to follow the pictures in the book while the movie plays.
We added a Sensorial Table: filled with faux leaves, dyed pasta and rice, pom poms, cups, bowls and spoons for scooping, letter C's, and play caterpillars and butterflies. Together, we did a fun activity where we would place the caterpillar under one of the silicone muffin cups like a cocoon (just like the story), close our eyes, and then she would lift the cup and there would be a butterfly!
Feed the Caterpillar: is a fun activity, my husband made this caterpillar out of a kleenex box and cardstock + we added these adorable fruit counters inspired by the book. Our little one loved this activity from counting to naming the fruit pieces and of course feeding the hungry caterpillar.
These fruit counters are included in our "IN THE KITCHEN" Handprints Discovery Box and are great for so many learning opportunities!
Play food: Slicing play fruits these Melissa & Doug wooden fruit pieces; strawberry, pear and orange. You could also do a basket of food items from the story or even picture cards of food items to sort and/match.
Arts & Crafts: I have had this butterfly cardboard stencil from my daycare and added a piece of paper with a clip, foam paint brush & paint. My daughter enjoyed doing this activity and lifting the stencil to reveal the butterfly! You can also decorate a butterfly or caterpillar template with items like stickers, paint, etc.
C is for CATERPILLAR: letter recognition activities are great - you can include stickers or washable bingo dabbers with this dot to dot page (from 123homeschool4me)
We also added some playdough and wooden bug stamps to our shelves as well as adorable PRINTABLES from TOTSCHOOLING like this Counting/dot to dot printable which I added coloured dot stickers to
Also added this "which one is different" themed printout which I cut into strips and helped guide my little one to cut each item with safety scissors *ADULT SUPERVISION IS A MUST* and added a glue stick and construction paper to her tray.
This was a fun theme to put together and there are so many AMAZING activity ideas out there! My little one had fun exploring her Hungry Caterpillar activities especially her sensorial table & counting and feeding the caterpillar yummy fruits!
Hope that you find some inspiration to add some caterpillar themed activities to your little ones shelf!
For more themed activity ideas find them here