What do pasta, egg cartons, and paint have in common? You can use all of them to create a Very Hungry Caterpillar craft. This early spring story is by Eric Carle, who is well known for his cut-paper style crafts. In the story, the Very Hungry Caterpillar begins as an egg, then emerges into a caterpillar, and finally turns into a butterfly.
You will need child safe scissors, an egg carton, two pieces of shell pasta, and some rotinis. You will also need paint, paint brushes, glitter, and whatever goodies strike your child’s fancy. You will also need a pipe cleaner or chenille stem – you know, those furry things with metal in the middle? Finally, you will require a coffee filter and some fat and colorful pens.
Use the scissors to cut out a section of egg carton that is three eggs long, or get your child to do this. Your child can decorate the sections with glitter or paint.
Then, talk about the stages of the butterfly’s life cycle. The butterfly goes through metamorphosis. As people get bigger, we look fairly similar, although we do get larger. Butterflies change shape completely, going from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. This craft will depict the ways that the caterpillar changes.
Use one shell pasta as an egg, and glue it into the first egg carton compartment. The second pasta is the rotini. This is the caterpillar. The third is another shell, and this is the chrysalis. Your child can glue and paint to her heart’s content – this is the best part.
To create a butterfly, cut the coffee filter down the center halfway until it resembles butterfly wings. Use the fat felt pens to make different colored spots and dots on the coffee filter, then spray it gently with water. The felts should bleed into each other, making interesting rainbow patterns. Allow it to dry, then cinch the coffee filter in the middle with the pipe cleaner. The pipe cleaner is the butterfly’s body. Bend the tops in a curve to make antennae.
The butterfly can either be placed on the back of the egg cartons or it can be its own separate toy.
Read The Very Hungry Caterpillar together and then eat lunch – you’ll be hungry!