The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a children’s book 📚 illustrated and written by American author Eric Carle. Published in 1969, the book has sold over 50 million copies worldwide and adapted into a television 📺 series.
It was a book that I grew up with and now my kids are growing up. If you haven’t read the book to your child, then I highly recommend it as it teaches kids about counting, the days of the week, different types of fruits 🍉, and even the metamorphosis 🦋 process.
Lately, I have been using this book as an inspiration for art projects, games, exercises, and even meal prep.
Fascinating Hungry Caterpillar Activities for Kids
In the following section, I’ll be listing amazing snacks, beverages 🍹, arts and crafts projects, and exercises inspired by The Very Hungry Caterpillar. These activities include activities for toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, and 1st and 2nd graders.
All of the activities and snacks listed in this article were tested by my kids (who are very picky).
Through these activities, they were able to learn the days of the week, work on letter and number recognition, improve their counting skills, and stretch their artistic muscles. I hope you can see the same results with your kids.
Hungry Caterpillar Necklace
If your kids are big fans of the Hungry Caterpillar, then making this necklace will be very fun for them.
What You Need-
Dry penne pasta 🍝, red construction paper, and green thread.
Steps-
- Paint the penne pasta 🍝 green.
- Ask your kids to make small discs using the red construction paper. Make sure to make a small hole in the middle of each disc. Also, make one red disc with the caterpillar’s face.
- Take a large piece of green thread and put the red disc and green pasta 🍝 alternately. Your necklace is ready.
Hungry Caterpillar Watermelon Playdough
Inspired by the Hungry Caterpillar’s love for watermelon, this exercise will help your little ones with their counting skills and number recognition 🔢.
Create flashcards with a barren watermelon 🍉 (aka no seeds) and a random number on the side. Give these flashcards to your child along with black playdough and ask them to make seeds in correspondence with the number on the sheet.
Pro Tip:
You can also ask your kid to use the playdough to make the number on the sheet.
Hungry Caterpillar-Inspired Breakfast
This is an amazing activity that will be loved by your kids!
What you need-
Green grapes 🍇, strawberries, carrots, cheese slices, and oats.
Steps-
- Make oatmeal, cut the carrots 🥕 into little triangles, and cut the strawberry 🍓into small circles.
- Give your children these ingredients and help them make a Hungry Caterpillar-inspired breakfast.
My kids like to use green grapes to make the caterpillar’s body, the strawberry for its strawberry, and the carrots for its feet. They use the cheese 🧀 slice to make the sun and the oatmeal for the ground.
Pro Tip:
You can customize this hearty breakfast with your children’s favorite items. You can also swap oatmeal with pancakes.
Hungry Caterpillar Fruit Snack
With all of this fresh fruit around this summer, my kids and I made a Hungry Caterpillar-inspired fruit snack.
What you need-
Green grapes, strawberries, bananas 🍌, and carrots.
Steps-
- Slice the strawberries 🍓.
- Cut the carrots into two small circles and two rectangles.
- Ask your child to place the banana in the middle of the plate. Then, give them the grapes and strawberries🍓 to decorate the wings of the butterfly as they like.
- Place the rectangle and the circle above one end of the banana 🍌to represent the wings. And voila! The snack plate is complete.
Pro Tip:
You can also make this snack plate with pineapple, cherries, apple slices, and other fruits.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Sticky Wall Game
My preschool daughter enjoyed this activity immensely.
What you need-
A large chart paper, sticky notes, a paper plate, and a marker 🖋️.
Steps-
- Using the paper plate, draw five circles ⭕ in the shape of a caterpillar on a large chart paper.
- Using tape, secure this chart paper on a wall.
- Invite your kid to use the sticky notes (make sure that you have red, green, and yellow sticky) to decorate these circles just like the hungry caterpillar 🪱.
Hungry Caterpillar Counting Activity
This colorful counting activity is perfect for preschoolers and toddlers. You can also use the sticky wall game in this exercise.
What you need-
Construction paper and scissors ✂️.
Steps-
- Using red construction paper, cut 1 apple and 4 strawberries.
- Use the green construction paper to make 2 pears, the orange paper to make 5 oranges, and the purple paper to make 3 plums.
- Once you are done, lay down the fruits in the shape of a pyramid 🔺 on the ground.
- Start reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to your child and ask them to pick the fruit and feed it to the caterpillar to reenact to the story.
The Hungry Caterpillar Tissue Paper Butterfly Activity
This arts and crafts project not only engages your kids but the end product can also be used to decorate their room.
What you need-
Construction paper, tissue paper, glue, marker, and a pair of scissors ✂️.
Steps-
- Ask your child to draw a large butterfly on the construction paper.
- Hand them a pair of scissors ✂️ and help them cut the butterfly.
- Ruffle up the tissue paper, preferably of different colors.
- Ask your child to paste the tissue paper onto the construction paper. Let them choose their own patterns and designs. Your Hungry Caterpillar-inspired tissue paper art project is finished.
Pro Tip:
If you have plain tissue paper, then use paint and different objects like sponges and toothbrushes to make interesting patterns.
The Hungry Caterpillar Cupcake Liner Craft
My daughter is a big fan of The Hungry Caterpillar. It is her favorite book 📖 currently. So, I have been coming up with different art projects we can do to decorate her room.
What you need:
Red and green cupcake liners, googly eyes 👀, cotton earbuds, and a black marker.
Steps-
- Take four green cupcake liners and paste them one after the other in the shape of the caterpillar’s 🪱 body.
- Paste one red cupcake liner on one end of the caterpillar. On this liner, paste two googly eyes 👀 and use the marker to add more features to the face and the body.
- Take one cotton earbud and cut it in half. Paste them as antennas on top of the red cupcake liner. And you are done.
Pro Tip:
If you can’t find either red or green cupcake liners, then I recommend painting a plain cupcake liner with the necessary paint.
Butterfly Life Cycle Physical Exercises
Parents know that keeping their children physically active improves their motor skills, stimulates them, and most importantly tires them. With these physical movements, you can teach your kids about the butterfly’s life cycle. These movements are as follows-
- Make the children squat down and grab their ankles to represent the egg stage of the caterpillar 🪱.
- For the next stage of the butterfly, which is the caterpillar 🪱, you can ask the kids to do the worm on the floor.
- Give your children a large garbage bag or a sack to get in to represent the cocoon phase.
- Ask the children to wave their handkerchiefs as they get out of the bag to represent the final stage of metamorphosis, the butterfly 🦋.
C is for Caterpillar Art & Crafts
This is a perfect activity for preschoolers and kindergarteners who are learning the alphabet 🔤. You can use this activity idea to teach your kids how to spell not just caterpillar but other words as well.
What you need-
You’ll need construction paper, scissors ✂️, glue, marker, googly eyes 👀, and mini pom poms.
Steps-
- Give your child several pages of construction paper and ask them to write all of the letters in the word ‘Caterpillar’ in the uppercase.
- Once they are finished, give them a pair of scissors ✂️and help them cut these letters as neatly as possible.
- Provide them with glue and an unlimited supply of pom poms to paste on the letters.
Pro Tip:
Once your children are done with this activity, you can challenge them to a game to see who can come up with the most words with the given letters. This improved my daughter’s letter recognition and spelling.
Hungry Caterpillar Potato Masher Craft
This simple craft is meant for toddlers and preschoolers and involves their fine motor skills.
What you need-
A circular potato 🥔masher, green and red paint, and a marker.
Steps-
- On two paper plates, squirt red and green paint respectively. Spread it around.
- Take a potato 🥔 masher and push it into the green paint.
- On a plain sheet of paper, stamp the potato 🥔 masher. Repeat this a number of times until your child has created the green body of the caterpillar.
- Wash the potato masher and push it into the red paint. On one end of the page, stamp the potato 🥔 masher.
- Let the paint dry. Hand your child a marker and ask them to add features to the face, make the legs of the caterpillar, and make a design if they want to.
Hungry Caterpillar Puppets
I have observed that if I use props while I tell my kids a story, they become very invested in the book we are reading. If you are reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar 🪱 to your kids, then I highly recommend this Hungry Caterpillar puppet.
What you need-
Colored construction paper, glue, popsicle sticks, markers, scissors ✂️, and pencil.
Steps-
- Give your child a bottle cap and ask them to draw circles on green construction paper. When they are done, ask them to cut these circles with a pair of scissors✂️.
- Similarly, draw a circle (a little larger than the green circles) on the red construction paper and cut it.
- Use purple construction paper to draw the antennas of the caterpillar and yellow and black paper to draw the eyes (the yellow circle should be larger than the black circle).
- Use the black construction papers to draw the caterpillar’s legs as well.
- Draw a lean snake, the length of an A4 size paper. Cut it out.
- Start pasting the green circles on this snake. On the one end of the snake, paste the red circle.
- Decorate this with the eyes 👀, legs, and antennas. When you are done, glue a popsicle in the middle of the caterpillar.
Pro Tip:
You can also create popsicle puppets of the fruits mentioned in the books.
Hungry Caterpillar Fruit Hole Punching Activity
This fun activity will help strengthen your preschooler’s fine motor skills. It also improved my daughter’s counting skills and number recognition.
What you need-
Construction paper, hole punch, scissors ✂️, and tape.
- Use different colors of construction paper to draw fruits like strawberries 🍓, apples, oranges 🍊, plums, and pears.
- Hand your child a punch hole and ask them to punch a hole in the fruit whenever it is mentioned in the story. For instance, if an apple is mentioned three times in the story, then there should be three holes in the apple.
Hungry Caterpillar Egg Carton Craft
If your kids love arts and crafts, then they would absolutely love this egg carton craft.
What you need-
Empty egg carton, paint, googly eyes, scissors ✂️, markers, and glue.
Steps-
- Ask your child to cut the egg 🥚 carton lengthwise with a pair of scissors.
- Then ask them to paint the carton in whichever color they want.
- Once the paint has dried, help your child paste two googly eyes 👀 to the front of the carton.
- With the help of the marker give final touches to the carton.
Pro Tip:
You can provide your kids with other items to customize their Hungry Caterpillar-inspired egg carton craft.
Hungry Caterpillar Photo Wall
If you are having a children’s party and want to celebrate the birth of your kid or just want to make a photo wall of your child, then this Hungry Caterpillar Photo Wall is perfect for you.
What you need-
Several pages of green construction paper, red construction paper, and printed photographs of your child or children.
Steps-
- Cut several large circles from the green construction papers. Cut them and paste a photo of your child in each of these circles.
- Take a barren wall and paste these circles in the shape of a caterpillar.
- On the top of the wall, paste a circle cut from red construction paper.
- You can add more features to the face. Your wall is ready.
Hungry Caterpillar Balloon Decoration
This is one of the most loved activities of most of the
What you need-
Green balloons, red balloons🎈, and tape.
Steps-
- Blow several green balloons and paste them next to each other with tape.
- Finally, blow one red balloon 🎈 and paste them on top of the green balloons. You can paste the balloons on the wall.
Hungry Caterpillar Fingerprint Counting Exercise
Make a Hungry Caterpillar fingerprint counting worksheet with the help of Photoshop or any other editing software. Divide an A4 size sheet into 10 rows with a caterpillar face in each row along with numbers 1 to 10.
Give your child paint and ask them to make the caterpillars’ body as long as the number is written in that row. For instance, if there is ‘2’ written in the row, then ask them to make two impressions.
Hungry Caterpillar-Inspired Beverage
If you are having a kid’s party for preschoolers, then I highly recommend this Hungry Caterpillar-inspired beverage. Both my children absolutely loved this drink.
What you need-
Blended watermelon 🍉, lemonade, apple juice, and lemon 🍋 wedges.
Steps-
- Strain the blended watermelon into a large container and add equal quantities of lemonade and sparkling apple juice. Mix it well.
- Decorate with lemon 🍋 wedges.
Pro Tip:
You can also cut some strawberries 🍓 and add crushed ice to the beverage.
Hungry Caterpillar Fruit Platter
In the book, the Hungry Caterpillar eats several fruits like- apples, strawberries🍓, pears, plums, and oranges 🍊. To make this platter, peel the oranges 🍊 and cut the rest of the fruits in bite-size pieces.
- On a large wooden platter, assemble the fruits in the shape of a caterpillar. Add other features with seeds and nuts.
Pro Tip- You can add more fruits to the platter. I recommend adding grapes and blueberries to the mix to make the platter more colorful.
M&M Hungry Caterpillar Counting Exercise
This activity will help improve your child’s counting skills and motor skills. Plus, the kids will love playing with the candies as much as they enjoy eating them.
What you need-
Construction paper, markers 🖋️, and M&Ms.
Steps-
- On a construction paper, draw several caterpillars of varying lengths.
- Hand a packet of M&Ms to your child and ask them to put different colored candies on the caterpillars. Ask them to count the number of M&Ms used.
Paper Plate Hungry Caterpillar
Ah, such an amazing activity to do together with your kids.
What you need-
Paper plates and red and green paint.
Steps-
- Paint seven paper plates with the color green and one paper plate with the color red.
- Paste the seven green paper plates with each other in the shape of the caterpillar’s body. Finally, paste the red paper plate. You can add features to the plate with a marker.
Pro Tip:
I wrote the seven days of the week on the green paper plates and asked my kids to draw the fruits mentioned in the book on each plate. You can do the same.
Hungry Caterpillar Headband
If your kid loves the Hungry Caterpillar, then they’ll love this headband. When my daughter and I finished making this headband, she wore it everywhere.
What you need-
Red, yellow, green, red, and purple construction paper, and glue.
Steps-
- Take a red construction paper and wrap it around your child’s head to measure how much paper you’ll need.
- Then cut a headband of that size.
- Cut two circles from the yellow construction paper and two smaller circles from the green paper.
- Paste the green circle on top of the yellow circle.
- Finally, paste these circles on the red headband.
- Draw two antennas on purple construction paper, cut it, and paste into the interior of the headband.
Hungry Caterpillar Tissue Box
This activity will help your child’s motor skills.
What you need-
To make this Hungry Caterpillar-inspired Tissue Box, you’ll need an empty tissue box, pom poms, and construction paper.
Steps-
- Paste a construction paper on one side of the tissue box.
- Make a caterpillar on it with the help of construction paper.
- Using a box cutter, make several holes that can fit mini pom poms in the body of the caterpillar. Your box is ready to be played with.
- Ask your child to feed the caterpillar by feeding it the pom poms.
Butterfly Life Cycle with Pasta
Teach your child about the butterfly life cycle with the help of pasta. My kids definitely enjoyed this task and wanted to eat pasta afterward.
What you need-
Rotini, Shells, and Bowties pasta, paper plate, twigs, two leaves, and white beans.
Steps-
- Using a pen and a ruler divide a paper plate into four quadrants.
- In clockwise order write eggs, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly in each quadrant.
- Place a leaf 🍀 in the quadrant titled eggs and place the white beans in it.
- In the quadrant titled caterpillar place another leaf and a rotini pasta 🍝 in the middle.
- In the next quadrant, place a twig and the shell pasta.
- In the final quadrant place the bowtie pasta to represent the butterfly.
Pro tip:
As you help your child make this project, explain the metamorphosis process.
Hungry Caterpillar Names
This project will help your child recognize letters 🔠 and improve their ability to spell their name. Ask your child to draw the Hungry Caterpillar and write the letters of their name in the caterpillar.
Hungry Caterpillar Marshmallow Painting
My kids loved this painting project as it involved their love for painting and marshmallows.
What you need-
Red and green paint, marshmallows, and a blank sheet of paper.
Steps-
- Pour some green and red paint into a cup.
- Give your child a blank sheet of paper and marshmallows.
- Ask them to dip the marshmallow in the color and make the caterpillar.
Pro Tip:
You can ask your child to add extra features to the painting with stickers and markers.
Hungry Caterpillars Bead Wristband
My daughter wore this wristband everywhere she went. Make a Hungry Caterpillar-inspired bead wristband with the help of green and red beads and a sturdy thread.
Conclusion
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a very popular children’s book that has been a popular piece of children’s literature for over 50+ years.
If your kids are as big a fan of The Very Hungry Caterpillar as my kids are, then they will absolutely love these exercises, games, arts and crafts projects, beverage ideas, and snacks.
I hope you and your children have a good time with these activities as well. Can’t wait to hear your comments on what your kids’ favorite activity, arts and crafts project, and snacks was.
I’m a former teacher (and mother of Two Childs) with a background in child development. Here to help you with play-based learning activities for kids. ( Check my Next startup Cledemy.Com)