Feed the Caterpillar and other Buggy Fun!

feed the caterpillar

When I was in first grade, Mrs. Shrader read aloud every day after recess. And one magical day, while she was reading us Eric Carle, my first tooth fell out! I was thrilled! I was on the late side with this milestone and I’d finally get a paper tooth with my name on it pinned to the very long chain of teeth that encircled the top of our classroom. This is just one of the many reasons I’m fond of all of the Carle books!

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” is a particular favorite because it lends itself to so much interaction and it ties in neatly with the spring curriculum. I have a large board book version that is perfect for groups. (Ever use big books? They really capture attention.)

I’ve used a caterpillar sock puppet in the past to help act out the book, but this year I really wanted each of my little ones to get in on the action. Voila! Feeding bracelets!
caterpillar bracelets

These narrow strips are best cut and assembled by an adult in advance. You can have a set for each student or one for the group and have them place it on a paper towel roll or on an adults arm. After we’ve fed the caterpillar, we’ll make our hand into a fist to represent the cocoon, count to five and then interlock our thumbs to make a butterfly!

butterfly with bracelets

I have two paper towel roll options. One simply has the caterpillar that can be held horizontally or set upright on a table (use playdough or the stand to hold it up). The other cover has a happy caterpillar at the bottom and, as the rings stack up, you reach the sad caterpillar. Feed him the leaf and touch the cocoon, then count to 5….

stacked rings on paper towel with butterfly

Ta-da! It’s time to place the butterfly on top!

Any of these activities will make your OT happy too.

For additional details, click here.

Bugs in the Grass cover

Looking for articulation fun instead? Bugs in the Grass Articulation has sixteen phoneme and position specific targets per page (picture targets). This is a cute craft to take home and show to a parent! (If your kiddos are working at the sentence level, you’ll be happy to know that the long bugs with two prompts have related words that can easily be incorporated into one sentence.) Click here for more details.

Don’t forget to enter my Eeboo giveaway! Eeboo has also created a 20% discount code for my readers good for the month of April 2017. Use: ACTIVITYTAILOR20 at checkout.

 
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This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Cara

    You are right your OT will love this. There are so many activities that you can do with Eric Carlie’s books. I love this activity for visual motor and fine motor. Will try this in therapy.

    1. admin

      Thanks, Cara! I just had one of my students ask, “why do we do so much cutting practice in here?” Made me laugh. Inside I was thinking, “because, sweetie, you need that too!”

  2. Lisa Baxter

    This is adorable! I love using this book in therapy. SOOO much good vocabulary.

    1. admin

      Feel free to leave you own ideas for activities to support this book!

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The views expressed in this blog are my own and are intended to inspire other speech-language pathologists in their own practice. If you are a parent, teacher or other educator, these ideas are not intended to take the place of treatment by a certified clinician. Read full disclaimer here.