The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Samuel's absolute most favorite book in the whole world is the Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle...at least for the past two weeks it has been!  We've read it over and over and over and over and over! 

So I checked out pinterest to find out what activities we could do for the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and was so disappointed not to find much...though there are lots of birthday party ideas (which I pinned!). 

So when Samuel and I were down and out with a cold, I came up with a cute idea for entertain Samuel and help me maintain my sanity since I was feeling super rough!  I created Samuel his own caterpillar for him to decorate!  And considering i'm not craft, especially without very specific directions...I was impressed with myself (seriously, I need help with anything craft related, I don't know why I just can't draw like everyone else!!!)

All you need for this activity is:

4 paper plates

A stapler

Pipe cleaners

Tape

Scissors

Construction Paper

Stickers, Glue, glitter, Crayons, or whatever you want to decorate your caterpillar with!

Simply staple the four paper plates together to form a caterpillar body.  Cut a pipe cleaner in half and tape them to the "head" of the caterpillar.

Use the construction paper to make eyes, mouth, or even food from the book (that is my plan for next time, but we were sick with a cold and I was just trying to find an activity that would help Samuel forget his cold!)

Here is the before (and before Samuel saw it!) 

Samuel loved his Hungry Caterpillar immediately!  He started coloring and it became a very colorful caterpillar!

This was awesome a great chance to do a whole toddler lesson on bugs!  I found a great board book at the Dollar Tree on insects...Samuel found this fascinating!  Then, since it was winter, we did a search around the house for bugs...which grossed me out, but delighted him to no end!  We found a lady bug, a stink bug, a spider, and a fly!  Ick...but like I said, he loved it!!  He's going to love bug hunting outdoors this summer!

Here Samuel is putting insect stickers on his caterpillar!

The finished product!  He LOVED his Very Hungry Caterpillar!!!!  LOVED IT!  He played with it for weeks!!!  Until it broke and I threw it away without him knowing!!!

This was a super fun and easy activity!  Very little clean up or preparation (unless, like I mentioned previously, you can use the construction paper to pre-cut the food from the book).  Samuel colored on this for weeks, and since it was so light weight, he brought it everywhere with him!!!  We are going to do this activity again in a few weeks, with better planning and more stickers :0)