Caterpillar Fun

We've been studying invertebrates in science and we've reached the insects section. Insects are gross, for the most part, but butterflies are nice, so we've paused to pay special attention to them. Yesterday the kids watched an Eyewitness: Butterfly & Moth DVD. I love the Eyewitness series -they have great pictures and lots of information in chunks that are easy for kids to understand and remember. 


Today, we focused on my very favorite butterfly, the one that was first a very hungry caterpillar.


I love The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. Luckily, my kids do too.  


I saw a cute & easy caterpillar craft on Pinterest several weeks ago. I set the materials for this out for the kids. 

The caterpillars turned out very cute!

Then I decided to elaborate on it a little bit and assigned them each foods from the book to make. I let them take charge, and so we ended up with black plums when purple construction paper couldn't be found and a few of our foods don't look quite like what they are supposed to be, but they had fun. 

Once the foods were done, I punched holes in each food. Then I had the kids sequence the foods and we strung it on a piece of ribbon and hung it, along with our finished caterpillars on the wall. They loved how it looked as if the caterpillars were going to eat the food.

I thought it turned out pretty cute. B was so excited about how it turned out, he wanted his picture taken with it. Then he went off to make a butterfly & a cocoon for the display! 

Need more Very Hungry Caterpillar? Check out my Very Hungry Caterpillar obsession board on Pinterest. 


P.S. I can't explain my VHC obsession. I just like the book...it's cute, well written and beautifully illustrated. And judging from the number of repins I've had on Pinterest, I'm not the only one who is obsessed!

Driveway Painting!

I borrowed this idea from my friend Lindsey at Kindred Spirit Mommy. My kids loved it! They had fun mixing the colors and since they love painting but seem to consider themselves too grown up for sidewalk chalk, this was perfect. I loved that it was super easy, because I'm not crafty at all.

To make this easy sidewalk/driveway paint, just mix equal parts cornstarch and water. The consistency will be watery. You don't want it too goopy. Then, add food coloring to make the colors you want. We used 3 drops per section of our muffin tin.

Ignore the messy muffin tin. I'm called Shaky Mommy for a reason. It's really a wonder I got this out of the house without spilling it! LOL. Aren't the colors pretty?

It was so bright outside this morning that the paintings look pretty washed out in the pictures. But they really turned out very colorful! Our little neighbor friend saw them painting, ran home and grabbed a paintbrush, and came back to help them paint!