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.