Tuesday 7 March 2017

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Every Christmas I search for a new book for Max that we can use in ways other than just reading it together. Books that you can create crafts from, themed activities, snacks, etc. For his first Christmas he received Frosty the Snowman, the following year he received Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (I love that book), and then this year he received The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 


The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been used as a birthday party theme, so there are a lot of fun ideas for activities, decorations and food for this book. Again, as I have mentioned before I try to choose activities that are age appropriate. If you don't, it is just not worth the prep and time spent. You will end up with an uninterested or frustrated little person, and that's just no fun for anyone. 

We started by reading the book, and then I put on the CD (it came with our book) where Eric Carle reads the book. I paused it after each page and Max used his story sequence stick to put the story together. He really liked this and asked to do it again before dinner tonight.  


Max is very into numbers right now. He is counting evvverything, so this number identification activity was perfect. He loved it and did it two more times later in the day. It was also great for fine motor. He struggled a little in beginning, figuring out how to pinch the clothespin, but he picked up on it after a few tries and with a little help and from there he loved it. 


I did all of the painting activities back to back because secretly... I have no patience for kid's painting and the mess. But I love the outcome so I power through. Max painted a rainbow caterpillar which took him forevvvver to paint.. but his attention to detail and making sure he painted every little spot (still missing some) was cute. 


We did hand prints which was a lot of fun. He is finally at the age where he follows direction perfectly and has the patience to wait for me to direct him where to put his hand. Mason's turned out pretty cute too :)


The butterfly painting was really neat and Max loved this one the most. Super easy. We dropped four different paint colours that Max picked on one side of the paper and then fold the paper in half and rub. Peel the paper back and tada, you have an abstract butterfly. Ours dripped a little while drying, creating two perfect little antennas. 



The other craft we did was another fine motor craft. I have a ton of beads left over from Christmas so I picked out a bunch of green ones and Max went at it, making a pipe cleaner caterpillar with a googly eye. 


For decoration I made a balloon caterpillar. The boys love balloons so it was an easy thing to throw together. 

For food, Max had a fruit caterpillar with his breakfast, which he was completely taken by, and then an apple and caterpillar cupcake for his lunch treat. Okay, so about that cupcake. Last night I made an entire batch for ONE cupcake for Max today, and he ate the gummy worm, took a few licks of the icing and informed me he was done. COME ON. I know, I'm nuts. Ah well, I froze the rest.


If anyone is interested in the crafts/activities let me know if you are interested in the links for the story sequence and/or number identification activity. 

So it was a hit! It took up our morning, once the babe went down for a nap, which is nice for a quiet day at home (hence the p.j.'s)

Look for my Easter basket post soon for ideas... pretty excited, this year I get to fill two baskets :) :) :)

Thanks for stopping by!

~ K

2 comments:

  1. I would love the links please. My daughter goes to preschool but this would be fun for a rainy weekend :)

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  2. I love all the crafts you did! You're such a great mom

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