The Very Hungry Caterpillar Inspired Activities

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is such a wonderful book!! Whenever I read it to a class, no matter what age, nearly half the children either have it at home, have read it, or can remember hearing it at some stage. 

All children enjoy listening to it, joining in with the repetitive text and recalling the life cycle of a butterfly. As a teacher it is jam packed with learning experiences. It has maths, science and so much language that I knew it would provide me with so many opportunities to extend these concepts and it can fit into so many themes.

I wish I could write something half as clever!!!

For the last couple of weeks we have been reinforcing our colours, mixing colours and working on numbers. The Very Hungry Caterpillar was our platform for many wonderful activities. 

Colour Mixing Leaf Prints

The children mixed yellow and blue fabric paint to make green paint. Once they had made green, they painted a large banana leaf all over. I helped them turn it over onto some calico and rub it all over to make a magnificent large leaf print.

Counting Caterpillar Segments

The children printed one red circle and four green (that had also been made from blue and yellow fabric paint) circles to make the caterpillar. They used their fingers to paint two green eyes all with fabric paint on a separate piece of calico. 

Making Caterpillar Cushions

When the painting was dry we were ready to turn our artwork into cushions. One of the lovely mums from the class brought in her sewing machine and one by one the children watched their artwork come together to make a pillow case -(this was a huge lesson in itself!) they then filled their own pillow and she sewed it closed.

I think they are the cutest pillows ever!!!

Colour Mixing Playdough Caterpillars

The children had blue and green playdough, a variety of leaves, pipe cleaners, bubble wrap, pop sticks and a variety of utensils to make some green caterpillars- or anything else they wanted to create!

We practised rolling balls that were different sizes, counting them, joining them together and adding antennae. I could hear some fantastic language and the children enjoyed re-telling the story. Some caterpillars were dark green and some light green. A wonderful learning experience.

Have a wonderful week. 

Niccola