A fun day with THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR By Eric Carle
My daughter loves to read and one of her favorite books is “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. This post contains multiple ideas with activities for toddlers at home dedicated to this book. The activities include crafts, books to read, food to eat, things to watch, and FREE resources! If you would like access a free schedule of what we did, click here.
*This post may contain affiliate links to products. Using these links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. For more information, click here.
What did we Do?
Paint
- Make a caterpillar using toilet paper rolls
- Paint a caterpillar (using hands) and butterfly (using feet). Here is where I got my inspiration.
- Here is how my daughter’s turned out:
I Spy
- I Spy game: This website has lots of great ideas and resources too, just scroll down
Memory games
- Playdough to plato has fun puzzles you can download and print. Here is the puzzle I downloaded:
I should have printed directly on cardstock but didn’t think of this until after I already printed so I just glued the printer paper onto cardstock and then cut them out. To make this activity a little easier, I drew a colorful single line at the top of each picture before cutting the pictures into strips. My daughter needed a lot of guidance with these puzzles but I could tell the little wheels in her head were turning. Although this activity was good for her visual perceptual skills, it was a bit too challenging for her age so I ended up putting the pictures together and she identified the picture. She then matched it to the picture in the book. I plan on saving these puzzles and will try again when she is a little older because it is such a great resource!
- This is a great matching memory game I downloaded from Mama’s Learning Corner blog
- It took a little while for my daughter to understand the concept of the game since she is two, but she ended up loving it in the end. We started with only four cards (two matches) and built our way up from there.
Puzzles
More fine motor
- Make a caterpillar and butterfly with Play-Doh
- Play-Doh is a GREAT fine motor activity that promotes bilateral hand use
- While playing, encourage your child to roll the Play-Doh in his/her hands, pinch, and pull
- Color: There are multiple coloring pages available online but here are a few:
- Necklace: Make a caterpillar necklace out of these Skoolzy Beads.
- Yet another GREAT fine motor activity that encourages bilateral hand use! Depending on your child’s age and skill level, he/she may not be able to hold the string and lace the beads at the same time. You may need to hold the string while the child laces initially and work toward the child using both hands.
- Yet another GREAT fine motor activity that encourages bilateral hand use! Depending on your child’s age and skill level, he/she may not be able to hold the string and lace the beads at the same time. You may need to hold the string while the child laces initially and work toward the child using both hands.
Access this Fine Motor Play printable here.
- Feed the caterpillar: Remember that bean bag toss game I made for Circus Day? I cut out and glued construction paper to make into a caterpillar. My daughter used tweezers (with my help) to “feed” the caterpillar.
As you can see, the caterpillar’s body looks a little funny. Originally I left all three holes in case my daughter wanted to keep it as a bean bag toss game. However, it was visually confusing for her because kids are so literal. My daughter couldn’t get past the fact that the mouth is the only place to feed a caterpillar so I cut out circles and taped them on the back for this activity. Then if she wants to play bean bag toss later on, I’ll just peel off the green paper taped inside the box.
Access the “Feed the Caterpillar/Bean Bag Toss” printable here.
We used Learning Resources pretend play food to feed the caterpillar.
There are multiple ways to adapt how to feed the caterpillar based on your child’s age and skill level:
- Have your child use tweezers (he/she may need hand-over-hand assistance).
- Have your child use tweezers (he/she may need hand-over-hand assistance).
2. Use a spoon to feed the caterpillar
3. Feed the caterpillar by hand
- Encourage specific grasps when feeding the caterpillar by hand:
- Tripod: thumb/index/middle fingers (think of pencil grasp)
- Pincer: thumb/index fingers (think of picking up cheerios)
- Palmar supinate grasp: stabilizing object with fingers inside palm (think pulling rope or holding pull toy)
- This may be the grasp where your child is the most independent because he/she will be using larger and more hand muscles than just tiny finger muscles.
- Get physical feeding the caterpillar!
- Sit at table with elbow supported (provides more stability for child)
- Stand without arm supported
- Balance on one leg while feeding
Access this Hand Grasp printable here with pictures of various types of grasps.
Play on tablet
- I did not personally download this app because there is a subscription fee but if it were free, I’d be all over that! Download the Hungry Caterpillar Play School app it costs $7.99/month or $59.99/year.
Developmental Skills Targeted:
- Cognitive Development: problem solving, sustained attention, working memory, cognitive flexibility, pattern recognition, alternating attention
- Social and Emotional Development: listens and follows directions, asks for help when needed and displays self-control (My daughter needed encouragement identifying when she needed help for the puzzles. She wanted to do it herself and became frustrated that it was too difficult. Once she allowed me to help her and I made the activity easy enough for her to succeed, she enjoyed it. We were then able to build on the skills by making it slightly harder again from there.)
- Speech and Language Development: expressive language (Again this was difficult during the puzzle activities because her frustration interfered with her ability to communicate well.) and receptive language
- Motor planning and Coordination: balance
- Sensory Integration: tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive input (putting weight through arms/elbows)
- Fine motor skills: Pencil skills (scribbling, coloring, drawing, writing), Play (construction, puzzles), specific in-hand manipulation grasps
- Gross motor skills: Locomotor skills (running, jumping)
- Vision: visual scanning, visual memory
What did we eat?
- Most foods in the book (strawberries, orange, pears, etc., plus pickles, salami, Swiss cheese, watermelon, etc.)
- “Caterpillar food”= fruit loops (this was her snack)
Ideas of what to read:
Ideas of what to watch:
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar on YouTube
- Caterpillar Shoes on YouTube
- *Both of these videos are super cute and pretty short if you prefer not a lot of screen time for your child.
What to wear:
Make a caterpillar headband. My daughter only wore this for about 5 minutes. However, she did agree to put it back on later in the day so she got a little more use out of it.
There are two options:
- Access a free downloadable headband template from the Resource Library.
- Follow the instructions below and make your own from scratch.
Supplies needed:
- red, green, yellow, purple construction paper
- scissors
- glue or tape
- circle pattern (I used a wine glass.)
- pen/pencil
- Start with a piece of construction paper. I chose green because that is the color of the caterpillar’s body. *Choosing a different color will make the caterpillar show up better. Keep reading to see the final product and what I mean.
2. Fold paper in thirds. As you can see my measurements were off (above right on computer and directly above if viewing on phone) so I just cut that extra piece off the top.
3. Cut along creases to make strips.
4. Tape two strips together.
5. Measure your child’s head to determine appropriate size. Cut off excess paper and secure ends with tape.
6. Use anything circular to make the head and body of caterpillar. I used a wine glass because it was the right size. Trace 4-6 green circles.
7. Repeat number 6 with red construction paper to make the caterpillar’s head. You will only need one red circle.
8. Make eyes: Make yellow and green ovals, with the yellow being slightly larger than the green. I cut these free-hand but it would look nicer if you have something to trace. Glue/tape green ovals to yellow.
9. Glue/tape eyes to head. Glue/tape head and body to headband. I drew a smile.
10. Cut out purple antennas. I also cut these free hand so if you look closely you will see the imperfections. Attach them to caterpillar headband.
Now you have the finished product!
My daughter didn’t really dress up today except she wore a green shirt and the caterpillar headband for maybe 5 minutes. But my dog, Daisy dressed up! Daisy didn’t love wearing this caterpillar Halloween costume and she refused to let me put the hood on for the picture, but my daughter loved it! 😊
I hope you and your family enjoy these caterpillar toddler activities as much as we did. More importantly, I hope you will make lasting memories! I’d love to hear how things went for you in either the comment section below or any of my social media pages linked below.
So cute!!! These are wonderful ideas and could even be incorporated into a Hungry Caterpillar birthday party. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Jenni! 🙂
Amazing article. Couldn’t be write much better!
Best regards,
Abildgaard Hessellund
Thank you Abildgaard!