The World of Boookshelf Learning: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

By Eric Carle

Ages: 1 - 3 years

Activities

Have the child write out an acrostic poem or/and a haiku poem (an unrhymed three-line poem) using the butterfly topic. These poems can be added to the mural. Haiku poems are very simplistic but if you need further details, check out this webpage.
Practice writing the days of the week and food names with these mini books.
Here are two worksheets with the hungry caterpillar theme. One is for pre-writing skills (line tracing) and the other is for the child to write a summary of the book.
Make an egg carton caterpillar.
I have a caterpillar hand puppet made of felt from my mother-in-law. She also made a cocoon, butterfly, and fruit/food (all out of felt). The kids love feeding the caterpillar food as we go through the story. They find the fruit/food I mention and then count how many the caterpillar needs to eat. Then I put the caterpillar inside the cocoon and out comes the butterfly! That of course, is their favorite part. The older kids love to work the hand puppet themselves as they recount the story. You could easily make your own hand puppet or get something like what I saw on this webpage. The link also gives you an activity idea for sorting and counting.
If you don't want to make a hand puppet, here is another great idea using an old Parmesan jar as the hungry caterpillar.

Make pattern block butterflies. Great way to study colors, numbers, and symmetry. It also allows the child to be creative. They can repeat the activity several times and easily come up with different patterns to explore.

This free unit (PDF format) has a good variety of lesson themes including: days of the week, counting, butterflies, life cycles of a butterfly, opposites, sequencing, and healthy foods.
Very Hungry Caterpillar vocabulary cards.
Caterpillar magnet craft using little pompoms and clothespins.

The World of Boookshelf Learning