Make your own very hungry caterpillar necklaces in this fun craft for kids! It’s a great way to practice fine motor skills, patterning, and creating. Be sure to add this easy craft to your Eric Carle, insect or bug, spring, or butterfly unit, or do it at the beginning of the school year!
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If you’re in search of a spring craft for kids with both a literature and math component, this one is perfect! Children will have the opportunity to practice patterns and counting in response to a very popular children’s story.
If you haven’t already guessed from the photos, our caterpillar necklace is based on the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. This story is one of our favorites! (Be sure to check out our felt set to go with the story.)
This craft for kids was very easy to prepare, and once your kids are old enough to handle scissors, they can do most of the work on their own. The best part of the craft is it allows your child space for creativity while also working on patterning and fine motor skills.
Very Hungry Caterpillar Necklace Craft for Kids
Materials for Caterpillar Necklace
- Red, yellow, and green construction paper
- Dyed pasta (Here’s my favorite way to dye pasta!)
- Yarn or string
- Liquid glue
- Single hole punch
Directions for Making the Caterpillar Necklace Craft
- Cut out red paper circles about 1 inch in diameter. Punch a single hole in each one.
- Make the caterpillar’s head. (You can be as simple or fancy with this as you want. We tried to make it look similar to the caterpillar in the book.) Cut out construction paper face and glued on some eyes and antennae. Punch a hole in the face for stringing later.
3. Now it’s time to assemble the necklace! Cut your piece of string or yarn to the size you’d like for your child. (I usually go a little longer than I think~ you can always cut it off later!)
4. Place some tape at one end of the yarn or string to make it easy for threading.
5. Have you child first thread a green pasta onto the thread. Next they add one red circle, then green pasta etc. forming a pattern.
6. When your child is happy with his or her caterpillar length, add the caterpillar head.
7. Tie the string together to form a necklace. (Cut off the tape).
Tips:
- There’s no need to leave out the little ones. While we were busy making our necklaces, Theo practiced those fine motor skills of his by putting pasta on pipe cleaners instead of string.
- This craft would be perfect for just one child, but also easy to produce in mass for a large group of children~ a project for your child’s class or playgroup activity. When doing the activity with large groups, I find it helpful to place each individual child’s materials in his/her own small baggie.
Be sure not to miss our other crafts for kids!
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How to Dye Pasta
Shaunna @ Fantastic Fun and Learning says
February 14, 2013 at 9:52 amThis is so cute, and I love the incorporation of patterning and fine motor practice. We’ll definitely work this into our spring theme or bug studies.
Miss Courtney says
February 14, 2013 at 12:11 pmFabulous! I’m pinning this for when I have a Very Hungry Caterpillar party at the library. It’s one of my favorite books!
jaime says
February 14, 2013 at 3:18 pmlove this, my son is beside me and said we should try that:-)
piwi mama says
February 14, 2013 at 10:18 pmWe love the Hungry little caterpillar -just pinned it! SO cute
Chelsey says
February 15, 2013 at 6:46 pmThank you! I don’t think Lucy ever really gets tired of it! I think we have a caterpillar necklace collection going on now!
Tracey@We-Made-That says
February 15, 2013 at 3:13 amOkay that is just very clever and cute! Thanks for sharing on We Made That!
Claire says
February 15, 2013 at 2:50 pmHello, popping over from the GGIF linky. This is a great idea. We’re donig Eric carle over the summer, so I’m gonna steal this idea!!
Chelsey says
February 15, 2013 at 6:40 pmYay! I hope you all enjoy it! Thanks for stopping by!
Pinkoddy says
February 16, 2013 at 2:04 amThis is brilliant and perfect with World book Day coming up. Off to pin. Thanks for sharing.
Sarah says
February 16, 2013 at 9:41 amThis is one of my favourite stories to use with the children I work with. Definately have to use this as a follow up activity – just brilliant! Have shared too.
Thank you so much x x
Ashley says
February 16, 2013 at 7:41 pmSuch a cute idea! thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library!
chelle says
February 17, 2013 at 3:00 pmThis is pretty cool! I like it a lot!!
Thanks for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
Tulip says
February 18, 2013 at 9:07 amSo cute! I love the hungry caterpillar. Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library.
Ashley says
February 19, 2013 at 6:08 amWanted to let you know I will be featuring this on Mom’s Library! Thanks for sharing!
Chelsey says
February 19, 2013 at 9:01 pmThank you so much, Ashley!
stephanie says
February 19, 2013 at 1:05 pmThis is adorable! I am sharing it on our FB page!!
Chelsey says
February 19, 2013 at 9:00 pmThank you!!
Rachel says
February 20, 2013 at 7:45 pmOh, this is just adorable! What a great idea, and perfect for the little kids! I am featuring this craft at the next For the Kids Friday link party over at SunScholars! Thanks for sharing with us, and I look forward to seeing more of your fun ideas!
liuba says
February 21, 2013 at 5:04 pmwowwwwwwww… I love this idea!!! thank you very much!!!
Beth says
February 22, 2013 at 4:01 amThis is such a cute & clever craft! LOVE it! I featured it this week at TGIF here: http://livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/2013/02/tgif-linky-party-64.html – Feel free to grab an I was featured button if you like.
Thanks for linking up and sharing your creativity with all of us! Hope to see you linked up again today.
Have a great weekend,
Beth =-)
Carrie says
February 22, 2013 at 12:45 pmThis is so cute!! I love it! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
Lindsey says
February 22, 2013 at 7:45 pmLove this! Thanks for sharing!!
I would like to invite you to my linky party Thrifty Thursday!
appleofmamaseye.blogspot.com
Hope to see you there!
-Lindsey
Becky says
February 23, 2013 at 4:57 amSuper-cute! I love the hungry caterpillar!:)
marissa | Rae Gun Ramblings says
February 24, 2013 at 8:54 pmWhat a fantastic project. Pinned it. I’ll be featuring some of my favorite Hungry Caterpillar projects soon on my link party and this would be a great addition
Jo says
February 25, 2013 at 10:59 amGreat project, we are working on the letter C this week so might just have to make some pasta caterpillars!
Karyn says
March 19, 2013 at 12:49 pmthis is SO cute! I am doing a hungry caterpillar round-up post tomorrow & will be sharing your post there. Thanks for a great idea!
teachbesideme.com
Chelsey says
March 19, 2013 at 7:45 pmThank you, Karyn! Can’t wait to see your roundup!
Sheila says
March 24, 2013 at 8:35 pmThanks for sharing! I just did The Very Hungry Caterpillar story and the class loved it… I’ve made different crafts in the past for this story, but not this one. I will definitely use this during our insect study week.
Chelsey says
March 27, 2013 at 9:31 pmI hope your class enjoys it! I always loved seeing my students walking around with their necklaces on all day. Too cute!
Cindy deRosier says
April 10, 2013 at 3:12 pmI’m the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your necklace! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/very-hungry-caterpillar-necklace/
If you have other kid friendly crafts, we’d love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!
Larissa says
February 18, 2014 at 9:22 amThis is SO cute and a great way to build fine motor skills! Definitely pinning this one!
Chelsey says
February 18, 2014 at 9:24 amThanks so much, Larissa!! My students always loved this activity!
Debbie @ http://kidsbibledebjackson.blogspot.com/ says
February 19, 2014 at 10:45 amThis is a really cute idea! Pinned it! Love it!
Catherine says
February 19, 2014 at 10:55 amI love this idea. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Dianna says
February 25, 2014 at 4:08 pmWhat a great craft to do when studying gardens, spring, or Eric Carle! How fun!!
Thanks for linking up with The Thoughtful Spot!
Victoria says
February 26, 2014 at 8:45 amSuch a great idea and so much fun! Definitely going to make these when we learn about Butterflies! Thank you for stopping by and linking over at Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop! You are featured as one of my favorites this week!
Jennifer @ Generation iKid says
February 28, 2014 at 8:31 amTerrific idea! Thanks for sharing on the Kids Co-Op, which I host on my site along with other bloggers. I’m pinning this one 🙂
Jennifer @ Generation iKid
Shantalle says
March 1, 2014 at 7:06 amThis is adorable! Pinning 🙂
maryanne @ mama smiles says
March 2, 2014 at 9:05 pmThis is very cute! I love the simplicity of it.
Jill says
March 2, 2014 at 10:21 pmThis is really adorable! We love the Very Hungry Caterpillar!
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!