The Hungry Caterpillar

I'm late but this is August's Treasure Basket.

Inspired by Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

I created some puppets for her.

Oh she loved the look of this big pom pom caterpillar.

She tried to pull the pom poms apart.

I encouraged her to continue to empty the bag and she found the tiny pom pom caterpillar.

Also in the basket were the pictures of the food that are in the story.

Yum the tiny, hungry caterpillar ate it all.

And then it became a great big caterpillar.

That was as far as we got with our puppets and story.

Next year we will have to create a butterfly puppet to add.

Caterpillar-Butterfly Play Tray

For the month of June I transformed our bin from the Tall Tall Grass to a bin full of...

leaves and flowers,

eggs on leaves,

caterpillars,

and chrysalis for the caterpillar to go into

and a butterfly come out.

Chrysalis

Our caterpillars are forming in to their chrysalis

and we are watching.

Do you see them hanging from the top?

It's not the place where the children usually see them

and takes a moment or two for them to finally spot them.

But look there are still a couple down there.

I can pretend this caterpillar is going into a chrysalis.

Our bead caterpillars that we made last week and hung on the bulletin board

have all formed chrysalis too.

Edible Caterpillars

Our Caterpillars our Here

Our caterpillars finally arrived and to keep little fingers busy 

(and not shake the live caterpillars)

I added toy caterpillars in the leaves for them to find.

I posted this photo for the parents to learn the different parts

and share that information with their children.

At the art table we made stick caterpillars.

First they need a stick and then a pipe cleaner.

The challenge is to twist the pipe cleaner around the stick.

We used the glue gun to fasten one end then the other

after twisting.

A pom pom for the head,

and googly eyes,

maybe a bead for a nose

and an acorn cap for a hat.

Two cute caterpillars ready to crawl home.

st-Art-ing the Life Cycle

Here are a few art activities we did while waiting for our caterpillars.

Using styrofoam sheets I carved a leaf pattern,

the children used it to make prints.

The child above asked for coloured paint after making her leaf.

She added a caterpillar.

Which was an awesome idea and other children copied her idea.

Next we did the same process and made flower prints.

Then another day we used straws to make flowers.

 And finally on the day our larvae arrived we made little caterpillars to add to our

bulletin board.

 We often put out pipe cleaners and beads because the children

love stringing them together.

I love watching them increase their fine motor and eye-hcontrol.

When they finished making their caterpillars we glued them onto the bulletin board.