This spring craft for kids involves two things kids love- painting with sponges and The Very Hungry Caterpillar! This caterpillar painting activity for kids is a great project on its own and would also be a great addition to any caterpillar and butterfly units for spring! (I’ve also used this caterpillar craft to decorate goodie bags for my daughter’s Very Hungry Caterpillar themed birthday party a few years ago!)

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar has always been a favorite book to read to my students and kids at home, so when I came up with this caterpillar craft, I just had to make it resemble the caterpillar from the book! (Of course, you could make your caterpillar craft using any colors you’d like!)

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar Craft Using Sponge Painting

Materials for Caterpillar Craft

White painting paper (or other thick paper)
Tempera paints
Sponges
Scissors
Black pipe cleaners
Black marker or crayon
Scraps of construction paper (or googly eyes)

How to Make the Sponge Painted Caterpillar Craft

1. Cut circles out of your sponges to use for painting. My circles were about 2 inches in diameter.

2. Squeeze tempera paints onto a paper plate or other surface that’s easily accessible to little hands. We used red, green, and a yellow-green.

3. Dip the circle-shaped sponges into the paint and stamp them onto your paper to create a caterpillar.

4. Use a black marker or crayon to draw legs.

5. Cut off small pieces of black pipe cleaner and glue onto your caterpillar for antennae.

6. Add some eyes to your caterpillar. We cut our eyes from scraps of construction paper, but you could also use googly eyes.

7. Let your caterpillar craft dry completely. You can display it as is, or cut it out to display!

Tips

This spring craft can be adapted for a wide variety of ages. Here’s an example of the caterpillar craft created by my six year old daughter. She did it all on her own.

My almost three year old son made this caterpillar. He had watched me create mine and had my sample nearby to guide him. I’d tell him one step at a time, and he would do the tasks on his own. I had the little eyes pre-glued together for him so all he had to do with the eyes was glue them on the caterpillar’s head.

My son LOVED sponge painting! He kept asking for more and more pieces of paper to paint! Our whole table was full of caterpillars!

Like I mentioned earlier in the post, we used this craft to decorate goodie bags for Lucy’s Very Hungry Caterpillar themed birthday party. They turned out so cute!