Egg Carton Caterpillars Kids Crafts

Did you see our Caterpillar Hunting post? It really grabbed Little N's interest! She has been enjoying The Very Hungry Caterpillar Book by Eric Carle so today I thought I would offer an opportunity for her to create some of her very own caterpillars and butterflies.

I covered the table with newspaper, put out 3 strips of egg carton (these were so fiddly to cut out so I really would advise this is to be done by an adult and as its so time consuming if you can cut them out before the activity that would stop your children loosing interest.
I also put out a black tray with blobs of colourful paints and a variety of different paint brushes. She spent ages and ages painting her egg carton. Much longer than I thought she would so I decided to join in and create a Very Hungry Caterpillar. She really enjoyed watching me get involved.  There was one remaining but after 45 minutes of painting she had had enough of painting the egg cartons, so I painted one in black, white and yellow stripes.
We left them to dry. They didn't take very long at all. The carton absorbed the paint which helped them dry quicker. We still had paint left over and she wanted to do some painting on paper. I showed her how to create butterfly paintings - splatting coloured paints over the paper and then folding it in half. Once I showed her she was fascinated and did painting after painting repeating the folding and peeling the sheets back open to reveal all the patterns.

I create two holes in the tops of the caterpilliars using a pen. I was being very careful but all of a sudden the pen made its way through the carton so this was tricky to control, meaning some of the holes were pretty large. I had already cut the pipe cleaners into strips so Little N chose the ones she wanted to use and she fed them through the holes with support. 
I would recommend that you use just one length of pipe cleaner posted through and back up through the other hole, rather than using two smaller pieces. I don't think they would hold in too good if you were to do it that way round.
Little N squirted PVA glue over the fronts of the caterpillars and she added their eyes. They looked great! Using her dried butterfly paintings she had done earlier that week, I cut them out into the shapes on wings. When they are open out you can place the egg carton caterpillars ontop of the wings to create beautiful butterflies.
Little N sat reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar book to herself and at the end she enjoyed adding the wings to the butterflies so they make great props for the story and the life cycle of a butterfly.
So if you haven't got any in, this week add to your list 18 eggs.  Save the carton and create some Crunching Munching Caterpillars with your children!
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