Today’s story themed challenges are based around ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’. If you have the story, sit and read this with your child before taking part in the activities. If you do not have a copy of the story, you can find the story on YouTube.
1. Can you explore different fruits and make your own fruit skewers or fruit salad? What colours can you see? How do they feel? This is a great opportunity to introduce new language to children of all ages. Encourage the children’s independence by allowing them to cut up their own fruit.
2. Can you create your own Caterpillar craft? You could use an old kitchen roll tube or something round printed in paint to make it. Encourage the children to follow instructions to add eyes and legs to the caterpillar. Again, this can be used as a good opportunity to introduce colour names. For older children, can they create a simple pattern? For example, red then green then red circles for the caterpillar’s body.
3. Can you make a giant Caterpillar out of Cardboard. Cut a hole for the Caterpillars mouth. Encourage your child to throw a ball through the hole in its mouth; this will be great for gross motor development.
4. The above could be done on a smaller scale as a way to encourage speech with younger children. Make a caterpillar and encourage them to ‘feed’ the caterpillar different foods (pretend or real); naming each one.
5. Can you make your own butterfly craft? What colours can you use?
6. For Pre-school, Can you learn about the Caterpillar Lifecycle? What changes happen to the Caterpillar? Can you make your own interpretation of this?