This craft is sure to please your little one! Some of the steps will likely require the assistance of an adult, but your child will love crafting with you! And when it is finished, your child can use the pieces as props to retell the story.
For this craft you will need:
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- stiffened felt in an assortment of colors (I recommend red, yellow, light and medium green, light and dark blue, pink, and light and dark brown) Note: while most craft and fabric stores carry stiffened felt, usually the colors available are limited. If you can’t find the colors you want, this pack of felt gives you a good assortment.
- 10 (10 mm) green wooden beads ( you can use larger or smaller beads if you prefer)
- 1 (10 mm) red wooden bead
- about 10 inches of green string or embroidery floss – make sure it is good and strong!
- colored permanent markers
- a .5 inch hole punch
- hot glue or a strong craft or fabric glue
- patterns for the caterpillar’s food
To Make the Caterpillar Food:
- Cut out pattern pieces for the caterpillar’s food.
- Trace the patterns onto the appropriate colors of stiffened felt, then cut them out.
- Glue the parts of the food together. You can use Tacky Glue or another strong craft or fabric glue for this, but hot glue will hold them together better.
- Next, punch a hole in each of the food items for the caterpillar to “eat” though.
- Finally, use colored permanent markers to add embellishments such as seeds on the watermelon and strawberries, a criss-cross pattern on the ice cream cone, lines on the cupcake wrapper, cherries in the pie filling, and a swirl on the lollipop. I let my kids do this part!
Now the food is done!
Now comes the part that little hands will love to do – the caterpillar!
To Make the Caterpillar:
- Thread your green string through the needle.
- Thread the red bead onto the string and pull it to the center of the string. This is the caterpillar’s head.
- Now, fold the string in half with the red bead at one end. Thread both ends of the string through the needle.
- Next, thread 9 of the green beads onto the string.
- Now separate the two strands of the string again and remove one strand from the needle. Thread the last green bead onto the strand that is still on the needle.
- Pull the 10th green bead tight to the other beads.
- Now bring the two strands of string back together and tie them securely in a knot.
- Thread both ends of the string back into the needle, and thread the tail of the string back through the 3 beads at the end of the caterpillar in order to hide the string. Cut off the end of the string.
Now your caterpillar just needs a face and he’s done! Use a permanent marker to draw a little face on the red bead. Now your caterpillar is ready to act out the story and “eat” through all the food you made!
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