Sharla Kostelyk

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of the first board books I bought my oldest son. I have such fond memories of him on my lap, pointing at the pictures that it will always be a favourite book. I still have it memorized!There are so many activities that can be used with the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar that it was hard to pick just a few!

I found this great idea for creating a Butterfly Life Cycle here. We used dried pasta, beans, leaves, and twigs on a paper plate.

Our The Very Hungry Caterpillar themed muffin tin lunch tray included:

cucumber
rice cakes
cheese
meat
crackers
cupcake (the ones the kids decorated the day before when we read “If You Give a Cat a Cupcake“)

The kids used this circle muffin tin lunch to create their own edible caterpillars.caterpillar counting practise

The kids did caterpillar counting using pompoms (find the printables on Confessions of a Homeschooler). The kids had several other caterpillar activities in their workboxes from there as well.

caterpillar colours sheet from Making Learning Fun

butterfly craft using tissue paper

hungry caterpillar Do-a-dot pages

the very hungry caterpillar alphabet dot-to-dot from Making Learning Fun

butterfly colour-by-number from Making Learning Fun

If you are looking for butterfly ideas, we also did several others including butterfly life cycle stamps during our “Bb” theme week. We also raised our own butterflies in the Spring and did some accompanying activities for that.

The book easily lends itself to a variety of activities. Even a trip for an ice cream cone can be tied back to the book!

On the flip side of that, it can also be a book that you use to promote healthy eating. Talk to your kids about their food habits and eating how they were meant to eat. Discuss how eating a green leaf is healthy for a caterpillar and therefore, it’s what made him feel better.

This book is also excellent for teaching or reinforcing the days of the week. After you read it through once, you can read it again but have the kids shout out the days of the week as they come up.

More Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar DIY Lacing Cards on Parenting Chaos

Feed the Caterpillar Activity (this one is so cute!) from Teaching Mama

Caterpillar Necklace Craft over on Buggy and Buddy

Hungry Caterpillar Coding Activity from JDaniel’s Mom

Very Hungry Caterpillar Toilet Paper Craft at Playdough to Plato

You might also be interested in these book activities:

Fancy Nancy Activities

A Bad Case of Stripes Activities

Click, Clack, Moo; Cows That Type Activities

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake Activities

By Sharla Kostelyk

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake by Laura Numeroff is an easy book to come up with additional activities for. We had so much fun with it!
This book fit really well into our “C” theme week. After reading If You Give a Cat a Cupcake, the kids helped me make cupcakes.

Later, they each took a turn decorating one for themselves and one to send home with my friend Glenda for her kids.

I set out three colours of icing, a tube of orange icing for ease of decorating, sprinkles, and small candies. The kids loved the freedom of decorating their own cupcake in any way they wanted. Almost as much fun as decorating (and eating!) the cupcakes was decorating paper ones using a printout I found here.

I provided glue, candy sprinkles (leftover from decorating the edible cupcakes), sequins, and coloured markers. I love how creative they were with their pictures, especially how they coloured their cupcake wrappers. The kids also did a character match-up based on the book and this ‘C is for Cupcake’ sheet from Spell Out Loud.

Finally, we set about creating our own poems based on the format of If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. If you give a _________ a ____________, he will _____________.

More If You Give a Cat a Cupcake Activities:

Cupcake Match Cards from No Time for Flash Cards

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake Cupcake Craft from I Heart Crafty Things

Cupcake Ornaments from Happiness is Homemade

Foam Dough Cupcake Making Station from I Heart Crafty Things (so cute and it has a sensory element too which I love!)

Laura Nemeroff Inspired Writing Activities over at Trinity Preschool (such great ideas for many of her books including If You Give a Cat a Cupcake)

You may also be interested in these other book activities:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities A Bad Case of Stripes Activities Fancy Nancy Activities

Click Clack Moo Cows That Type – Activities

By Sharla Kostelyk

Click, Clack Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin has long been one of our favourite read aloud books. It is funny and it features great illustrations and animals, so it is one the kids love. It’s the kind of book that is clever enough that even adults can appreciate it so I like it too!

Since we are doing the letter “C” this week, I thought it would be perfect to spend a day incorporating this book into our lessons.

I love this activity to introduce the concept of characters in a story. I put the four main characters on the cork board and cut out different sentences such as “I had a problem” and then I had the kids tape them on the character they belonged to. I found the printables here.

This great sheet allowed the kids to write a letter to Farmer Brown from an animal. You can print it here.

These Click, Clack, Moo Fill in the Blanks sheets were great for my early readers and it always makes me happy to see my kids helping each other. Einstein was helping Snuggle Puppy.

If you are looking for more book activities, you may be interested in following my Book Activity Ideas Board on Pinterest.

Workbox Activities for “Bb” and Telling Time

By Sharla Kostelyk

I used a variety of crafts, activities and learning centers to help the kids learn the letter “B”. Below are some of what I included in their workboxes for the week:-butterfly journal…just pages shaped like a butterfly stapled together. I gave the kids a lot of leeway on what to fill them with. Some chose to write stories about butterflies. Some chose to draw the life cycle of a butterfly. Others drew pictures and labeled them.

-butterfly number game from Confessions of a Homeschooler

-playdough mat from Homeschool Creations

-ballerina cutting practise from Confessions of a Homeschooler

–butterfly life cycle stamps

-sign language B and ballerina sizing practise

-ballerina puzzle from Confessions of a Homeschooler

-the coveted Sensory Bin card! This week it was a Bugs Sensory Bin.

We did many other B activities in our workboxes this week including other games, worksheets, and puzzles from Confessions of a Homeschooler and Do a Dot pages from Homeschool Creations.

We did quite a few craft activities including making binoculars and bird feeders using toilet paper rolls and making bean mosaics. You can find instructions on how to make the bird feeder and the bean mosaic here.

Here are some of the workbox activities we used for Telling Time:

-Time and Money (canadian version) Flash Cards

-I don’t know where I picked up this clock with the moveable hands that the kids can “set” and then write the time below with a dry erase marker, but they love it!

–Telling Time Match Up

Lots of other workbox activities unrelated to Telling Time or the letter “Bb”, including:

-A Reason for Handwriting

-magnetic calendar

Bugs Sensory Bin

By Sharla Kostelyk

With this week’s theme being “Bb”, I thought that a bugs sensory bin would be fun and interesting and would fit in well.

–ladybug magnifying bug view container
-fly’s eyes toy (when you look through it, you see the way a fly sees)
-various bugs
–small plastic magnifying glass
-rice dyed green to look like grass

To dye the rice, put dry rice in a ziploc bag, add about a teaspoon of rubbing alcohol and lots of green food colouring, and shake until well mixed. Then lay it out on a cookie sheet to dry, which does not take long.

Check out my book on sensory activities!

Condensed Milk Edible Paint

By Sharla Kostelyk

We had so much fun with this condensed milk painting. The edible paint produces beautiful glossy art. Your kids will love the end results and the process to get there!Condensed milk paint was something I stumbled upon. A week or so ago, I opened up a can of condensed milk for a recipe only to discover that the recipe actually called for evaporated milk!

This left me with an opened can of condensed milk sitting in my fridge. I was going to just throw it out until I came across an idea to do condensed milk painting!

Making this edible paint is so easy.

Condensed Milk Edible Paint Recipe:

300 mL or 415 mL can sweetened condensed milk (10 – 14 oz.)
food colouring
ice cube tray
toothpicks (optional)

Fill an ice cube tray with condensed milk.
Add one or two drops of food colouring in each cube.
Use toothpicks to stir them.
The paint is now ready to use.
Use paintbrushes (or fingers) to paint on paper. You can use regular paper, card stock, or finger paint paper.

This edible paint recipe is included in the Sensory Play Recipes eBook. You’ll find so many easy sensory ideas inside. You can get a free sample using the form below.

My kids really enjoyed using this paint to create pictures. The pictures turned out so well. The paint gave a shiny, glossy finish. The kids were really pleased with the cool effect of that.

Even after the paint dries, it maintains its shiny look.

Each of the kids wanted to try tasting the paint. Snuggle Puppy ate almost as much as he painted with! Condensed milk painting is a simple sensory activity. It engages the visual, tactile and gustatory (taste) sensory systems.

I love suggesting this activity to other moms because most people already have the ingredients needed in their kitchens. This makes it an easy last minute or rainy day activity.

Because it is taste-safe, condensed milk paint is also great for toddlers and even babies to play with. It can also be used as finger paint.

Other easy homemade sensory recipes you might want to check out:

Shaving Cream Painting Lavender Scented Bubbles