Very Hungry Caterpillar Craft: An Invitation to Create for Kids

An invitation to create a Very Hungry Caterpillar craft for kids. Using circular items like cut sponges and citrus halves, kids can create a caterpillar.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of our favorite kids books. Eric Carle has such a beautiful style, and the kids love to see what else the caterpillar is going to eat 🙂 This craft is an invitation to create, meaning, the materials are placed out and the children have creative control to craft however they like.

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Very Hungry Caterpillar Craft for Kids

An all time favorite book of ours is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. I love talking to my kids about the butterfly life cycle, and they love hearing about it. It seems about as close to magic as we can get. I mean how does a little insect hide out inside of a shell for a while and turn into a butterfly? Mother Nature…you got me there.

We always welcome Spring, and Spring in our house is synonymous with bugs, mud and gardens. Of all of the activities that we do, this caterpillar craft for kids is one of my favorites.

I like to set it up as an invitation to create, but I do give my kids a bit of guidance by asking the kids to make a caterpillar like the one in the book. Tip: I love to use plastic chip and dip trays from the dollar store when providing the kids with various art forms and tools. They are so perfect for this and truly do look inviting when set up!

What you need for your Very Hungry Caterpillar craft:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
paper
tray
green and red paint (various shades)
googly eyes
pipe cleaners
cotton balls
glue
circular objects for stamping like cut sponges, citrus halves, potato halves etc

How to Set Up the Invitation to Create

Although we do really like using paintbrushes in our house, it is always fun to come up with creative ways to paint by using household objects. We found just about anything circular that we could use to stamp and make a caterpillar! Cut sponges or citrus and potato halves work great!

Add paint to the tray in a few different colors of red and green. I used tempera paint for this project but you can definitely try homemade paint for this, check out our homemade flour paint, great for painting with babies who like to put everything in their mouths (like mine!).

Set the book out as a reference along with some paper.

Kids can look at the pictures and use the items in the tray to craft their very own caterpillars! They came out so cute and actually resembled the caterpillar! My kids had fun making ‘patterns’ with the circles.

They also glued on some eyes and antennae (pipe cleaners found in the tray) and then drew legs with a pen. The legs were all their idea, wanting the caterpillar to look just like the one in the book!

My son used the lemon halves for this caterpillar craft because they were so much bigger. He spotted the cotton balls on the tray and put them on his painting as materials used to make a chrysalis.

Enjoy making your own Very Hungry Caterpillar craft! It’s so fun to see what your own children will come up with!

Very Hungry Caterpillar Craft: Invitation to Create

Very Hungry Caterpillar Craft for Kids

What you need for your Very Hungry Caterpillar craft:

How to Set Up the Invitation to Create

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