Parenting | The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities

It is World Book Day today and although little J's school isn't offering the chance for him to dress up, we have been making The Very Hungry Caterpillar activities for him to enjoy at home.

If you are not familiar with the story it's about a very tiny but hungry caterpillar. Each weekday he eats through various fruits but after each day he is still hungry until he gets to the weekend and eats so much he gets a tummy ache. After he has built himself a cocoon, he stays in there for two weeks and when he pops out he is no longer a caterpillar, he is a butterfly.

Little J loves this book so to celebrate World Book Day we have made some Very Hungry Caterpillar activities.

Our first activity was a creative activity and as you may have guessed little J used his hands to create The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

It's very easy but lots of fun. If you are doing this as a learning activity then I will give you prompts on how you can get the most out of the activity at each stage.

All you need to do is paint the palm of your child's hand green. At this point you can ask your child if they know the colour? If they say green, perfect!

Then you need to paint each finger.  Any colour will do, Little J wanted brown legs.

Now, ask them to press their hand down onto a piece of paper to create the first part of the caterpillar.

 Repeat the hand print 3 times, each time pressing the hand down next to the last piece of the caterpillar.  Your caterpillar should now have a complete body. Depending on the age of your child you could now ask them to count all the legs.

Next hand your child a paintbrush and ask them to paint the caterpillars head. His face in the story is red but your child may wish to choose another colour. Next ask your child to paint a circle.  If your child does not know shapes yet, demonstrate on a piece of paper. show them what your hand does while you are making a circular motion. Once they have made their caterpillar head, repeat red (or the colour they have chosen) circle.

Once dry your child can add eyes and a smile.

This activity was very easy to make. I got a box and covered in paper leaving one side available to open for when I needed it. I drew a caterpillar however depending on the age of your child they may want to draw a caterpillar themselves. I then cut a hole for a mouth so we can feed him all the fruits that he eats during the week.

I printed out the fruits onto paper and then popped them on some card.

The idea of the game is you read the story along with your child and when it comes to the days of the week your child needs to find the correct fruit and also the correct number of each fruit too.

On Monday the caterpillar eats through 1 apple
On Tuesday the caterpillar eats through 2 pears
On Wednesday the caterpillar eats through 3 plums
On Thursday the caterpillar eats through 4 strawberries
On Friday the caterpillar eats through 5 oranges.

This game encourages matching, counting, number words, days of the week and also fruit recognition. Picking up the correct fruit and popping it in to the caterpillars mouth also helps develop fine manipulative skills.

It's important to model back the correct words to your child if they say the wrong word, also repeating the game with your child can also help them remember.

I hope you liked our activities. Do you have anything special planned for World Book Day?

Michelle

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