Caterpillar to Butterfly

Supplies:

• Coffee Filter
• Markers, paints, or something to color coffee filter
• Clothespin
• Pom-pom balls
• Pipe cleaner 
• Wiggly eyes
• Scissors
• Glue

Activity:

1. Color the coffee filter. Set aside to dry.
2. Glue some pom-pom balls to a clothes pin. Three works well--that way you can open and close the clothes pin easily.
3. Glue on wiggly eyes.
4. Glue on pipe cleaner for antennae.
5. You can then take the caterpillar and scrunch up the filter in the clothes pin to make a butterfly! This is a great supplement to a caterpillar theme unit!

 Kaitlyn made this at preschool last month and it has been one of her favorite projects by far.

C is for Caterpillar

I find it ironic that one of my favorite themes to do is insects when I absolutely, positively, HATE insects. Maybe I like to make insect crafts because they aren't real? I don't know.

This is a caterpillar with C words. Draw or print a series of circles on a page. Then give your child C words to color, cut out, and paste on the caterpillar's body.

If you have a younger child (toddler or younger), you will want to cut out the circles for your child. Some preschoolers will not be able to cut out a circle, either.

If you have an older child, have him draw pictures of C words rather than giving him pictures to color.

As you do the activity, talk about the letter C, the sound it makes, and say the words of the pictures you are drawing and coloring as you go.

Paper Cup Spider

This is a simple, fun craft to do at Halloween, while learning about insects, or while learning about the Eency Weency Spider nursery rhyme. This is something Brayden made a year ago at Preschool.

Age Range

Older Toddler and up.

Skills Taught

Fine motor

Supplies

• Paper cup
• Pipe cleaner cut into pieces (for legs)
• Eyes
• Marker for drawing if desired
• 1/8" elastic if desired (for putting around wrist)
• Glue

Prep

1. Cut paper cup down to size
2. Poke holes in paper cup for legs. This will make it easier for your child to get the legs in
3. Cut elastic to size
4. Cut pipe cleaner to size

Activity

This activity is simple. You have your child glue eyes on the spider and draw anything they want on the spider's body. You then have your child poke the pipe cleaner into the holes. Glue or staple the elastic to the bottom of the cup if desired. 

Your child can then put the cup on his wrist and walk it around and be a spider.

Ladybug Strawberry

These cute girls in my neighborhood made some little books for my kids. One of them was a book about ladybugs, and included in it was some instructions on how t o make this strawberry ladybug treat!

SUPPLIES/INGREDIENTS

• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Mini chocolate chips
• Toothpicks
• String licorice

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Wash strawberries and blueberries
2. Remove stem and leaves from strawberries
3. Push a toothpick into the top of the strawberry, leaving about half an inch sticking out.
4. Press a blueberry onto the toothpick. This is the head.
5. Push the pointed ends of the chocolate chips into the strawberry for spots.
6. Push six small pieces of licorice into the strawberry for legs.

Now you have some yummy treats to talk about insects!

Butterfly Kits

When I taught elementary school, we would order butterfly kits so the students could see most of the life cycle of a butterfly, up close and personal. Butterfly kits usually consist of some kind of housing (net-like), feeders/sugar, eye droppers, instructions and either live or a certificate for live caterpillars. If you want your caterpillars at a later date, go for the certificate.
It's so much fun for kids to see the caterpillars go from one state, to the pupa, to the butterfly. They get to feed them...a perfect temporary pet. :) It's not messy, it doesn't take up a lot of space, and relatively easy. Most of the sites guarantee a certain percentage of the caterpillars turning to butterflies. Can't beat that! If the weather outside is 50 degrees or higher, you can release the butterflies when ready. I've listed two sites below that have butterfly kits for $20-25. There are more expensive options around, but I'm opting for one of these.

http://www.butterfly-gifts.com/live-butterfly-kits.html ($25)





http://www.swallowtailfarms.com/pages/educationalproducts_brk.html ($21-25)

Egg Carton Caterpillar

Ages: 18 months +

Materials:

• styrofoam or cardboard egg carton
• finger paints
• paint brush
• newspaper/roll of paper for drop cloth
• pipe cleaners
• sharpie
• art apron

Preparation:

1. Cut egg carton in half (top and bottom).
2. Prep child with art apron/smock. We love this one from IKEA, it's $2.99, which honestly can't be beat, and it covers all the way down the arms. (*warning, does not keep curious toddlers from putting paint in their mouths, see below picture for example)
3. Lay out newspaper or a roll of plain paper as a drop cloth. We have this from IKEA, which comes on this holder, perfect for table-top cabinets. Normally I like to make due with stuff already at home, but these art supplies were a worthwhile investment and make a great, inexpensive gift set.

Activity:

1. Squeeze paint out onto paper. I chose to limit us to 2 colors, one of which was our color for this week--yellow. For moms who value 'pretty' projects, this is a simple way to keep an art project from turning into a brown and black mess of colors.
2. Help your child paint the egg carton (to be the caterpillar body) with the paintbrushes. Have fun, stop when your child loses interest or begins eating the paint, whichever comes first.
3. Set egg carton aside to dry.
4. Carry child with arms out away from your body to the nearest bathtub and run water. Rinse and repeat ;) (for ease of clean up I rinsed the art smock in the bathtub with Tobias and hung it over the shower head. When he was back to his normal color his clothes were still clean because of the smock, hooray!
5. After a nap (or the next day) cut the egg carton in half long-wise and take a sharpie to draw eyes and a mouth for the caterpillar.
6. Poke small holes in each division for legs on either side of the body. Cut pipe cleaners in half and thread each one through the body so there is a little leg sticking out on both ends. Repeat this for the antennae on the head. Allow your child to choose the color or ask them to find a particular color for you. This is a good way to informally test your child's color knowledge.

and later when we were all cleaned up and the caterpillar was ready for some legs and antennae. Notice that look of concentration :) He's such a firstborn.

Yarn Spider

This activity is not one that a child can do much of, but the kids love to play with it.

AGE RANGE
All kids can have fun playing with it. But only an older child can create it. I would say probably 4 and up. Some 3 year olds might be able to do it.

SKILLS TAUGHT

• Science (if you talk about spiders)
• Fine motor for the child who helps.

SUPPLIES

• Yarn
• Square piece of cardboard
• Scissors
• Pipe cleaner

ACTIVITY

1. Cut out a small square of cardboard
2. Wrap yarn around it
3. Tie a piece of yarn around it horizontally. Don't knot it because you will tighten it when you remove the cardboard
4. Use the scissors to cut the yarn wrapped around the cardboard
5. Remove the cardboard
6. Tighten the horizontal piece of yarn
7. Cut one side of the horizontal piece of yarn to be as long as the rest of the yard for the spider. Leave the other one long
8. Insert pipe cleaner
9. Add eyes if desired

PHOTOS
Here are some photos of the process. We did grey because we are learning about the color grey this week. The kids have had fun playing with them, but it really wasn't something my two year old could do at all.

CREDIT

I got this idea from Preschooler's Busy Book

Egg Carton Spiders

This is a fun little activity to do with your child around Halloween.

AGE RANGE

I got this idea from Preschooler's Busy Book. The book is written for ages 3-6. I did this with my 4 year old and 2.5 year old, so I know it can be done with a 2.5 year old. I would say if your child enjoys painting or coloring, she will enjoy this activity.

SKILLS DEVELOPED

• Science (if you talk about spiders)
• Art
• Fine motor skills

SUPPLIES

• Cardboard egg carton
• Scissors
• Pipe cleaners
• Paint, markers, or crayons
• Construction paper for eyes (or a marker)
• Glue (if you used construction paper)
• Thread or yarn (optional)

PREP

• Cut out the cup sections of the egg carton
• Get out supplies
• If you are painting and you are like me, prep the area (art smock/T-shirt/down to underwear and a vinyl tablecloth)

ACTIVITY

• Have your child color/paint the egg cup
• After the egg cup dries, insert pipe cleaner into the cup to be legs. I poked holes in the cup so the kids could insert it themselves and work on their fine motor skills
• Bend the pipe cleaner so it looks like legs
• Draw eyes or attach eyes out of construction paper
• Optional: attach string to the top so you can hang it somewhere

PHOTOS





This is kind of cheesy and they don't look a lot like spiders...but it is a fun thing to do.