You can listen to the author, Eric Carle, reading this weeks focus Story;
The Very Hungry Caterpillar below:
Did you join in with the story? There are lots of parts of this story that you can join in with.
- Can you help to count the fruit and name each food that the caterpillar eats?
- Can you say the days of the week?
- Can you remember the words that are repeated in the story? But he was still hungry!
Here are some activities that you can try that are linked to the story.
Watch – We love this animated version of the story. There are some other great animated stories by the same author; we like watching ‘The Very Quiet Cricket’.
Creative – printing
Potato printing is good fun. Carefully cut a potato in half and put some paint on a plate. Have a go at printing a caterpillar’s body using the potato. How long will you make it? Can you make a longer/shorter caterpillar? Give your caterpillar some legs using a paintbrush and add two eyes.
How many legs does your caterpillar have?
You could make butterfly prints; Fold a piece of paper in half and cut out a butterfly shape. Keep the paper folded in half (it helps to stop your child painting on both sides!) and ask your child to paint a pattern (spots, lines, zigzags) to one side. When it’s finished, open the paper out and then fold it over the opposite way and press down carefully so that the paint transfers. Open it out and you should have printed the same pattern onto the opposite side so that you now have a butterfly with symmetrical wings.
Fiddly Fingers
Cut out a paper leaf shape. Can you use a hole punch to munch around the edge of a paper leaf? Children love to use hole punchers and it’s a great way to strengthen their finger muscles for writing too.
Mark Making
Have a go at drawing your own caterpillars or some of the food that he ate. There are lots of printable colouring sheets online if you have a printer. Some colouring pages are available towards the end of this booklet, mixed in with a few activities for older children.
Understanding the World
Can you find any caterpillars hiding in your garden? They might be quite tricky to find. Have a look at these caterpillars that Jess found on a minibeast adventure.
What words could you use to describe the caterpillars?
Talk about what happens to the caterpillar at the different stages in its lifecycle. There’s a game to play here if you have access to a computer.
http://flash.topmarks.co.uk/3688
Music & movement
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/stories/melody-little-blue-butterfly
Listen carefully to the music clip that Melody plays. What did the music make you think of? Did it remind you of a butterfly fluttering its wings? Did you notice the music getting quicker and slower?
Have a go at moving like a butterfly, flying quickly and slowly and flapping your wings high and low.
If you enjoyed this, here’s a butterfly dance to join in.
Mathematics
If you have the story book at home, count the fruit on each page. You could have a go at counting the fruit in your fruit bowl or use toy food if you have a play kitchen. Ask your child to count out some food for The Very Hungry Caterpillar to eat. For example, can you get the caterpillar 4 apples to eat? The Caterpillar wants to eat 3 pizza slices.
If you’d like to play a game, there’s a simple picture matching game that introduces symmetry on Topmarks. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/symmetry/symmetry-matching
Wednesday activity
Cosmic yoga –
Or song – https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/z3ncd2p
We love to sing this song at Nursery and join in with the actions. We have an extra verse too; it’s all about eating the leaves.
He will eat the leaves around him ‘til he’s full.
Munch, munch
He will eat the leaves around him ‘til he’s full.
Munch, munch
He will eat the leaves around him, eat the leaves around him,
eat the leaves around him ‘til he’s full.
Munch, munch