The Wonderful World of Eric Carle

Happy Birthday Eric Carle!

We have several Eric Carle books, but I suppose we're a bit cliche when I say that The Very Hungry Caterpillar is our favorite. The Very Quiet Cricket, The Grouchy Ladybug and Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? are three others we enjoy.

Last year we did 2 different caterpillar activities that went alongside The Very Hungry Caterpillar:

Our pipe cleaner caterpillar, who Sweet P adored! 


And our feed the caterpillar activity that involved another pipe cleaner caterpillar who turned into a butterfly.


May's Virtual Book Club book was The Very Quiet Cricket and we went on a cricket hunt! We never did find him, but she had a fun time trying!

This week we'll be doing activities to go along with The Grouchy Ladybug and Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?

I'd love to hear about what you've been doing with Eric Carle books! Join me and a group of fabulous bloggers to celebrate Eric Carle's birthday! We'll be sharing various ideas throughout the week and you can link up your own ideas here! Be sure to visit the participating blogs throughout the week for a wide array of Eric Carle book activities! The linky will be up all week long so come back any new ideas you might do this week!

Participating Blogs:

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
No Twiddle Twaddle
Reading Confetti
Teach Preschool
Mommy and Me Book Club
The Educators' Spin On It
Living Montessori Now
Living at the Whiteheads Zoo
Famiglia and Seoul
Smiling Like Sunshine
The Iowa Farmer's Wife
Rainy Day Mum
Familylicious
Our Feminist Play School
Inspiration Laboratories
Royal Baloo
Kitchen Counter Chronicles
Smile Play Learn

Tot Preschool: Letter Cc

Sweet P is 28.5 mos old

After not remembering half of what we did last week, I decided to write Letter C a bit earlier this week and hopefully get a jump on my Letter D post!

We generally have at least one thing to do in the morning (Mondays it's music class, Tuesdays it's my midwife appt, Wednesdays it's library time) so we do tot preschool as soon as breakfast is over. We were busy with activities this week! Letter C has a lot to offer.

Here's what we did last week:

Bible Verse: We are still on John 14:15. Changing it next week for letter E.

Jesus said, "If you love me, obey me." ~John 14:15

Activities:

Chrysalis activity: We have a tunnel in the basement so I had Sweet P crawl through the tunnel as a caterpillar onto a blanket. Once she was on the blanket, I told her I was wrapping her up in her chrysalis (which she thought was too funny) and then when I unwrapped her I said, "Oh! You turned into a butterfly!" and she flew around the room. I did it with her too (without crawling through the tunnel) and the Farmer even had a go when he got home. We learned about chrysalises in the book Butterfly Birthday.

Very Hungry Caterpillar Activity: See post for more details

Sticker dot C is for Caterpillar from COAH: We used bigger circle stickers for the C and then pompoms for the caterpillar. She's not usually in to pompom placement, but had fun doing medium-sized and small pompoms for the caterpillar body.

Handprint Cat: Like most kids, Sweet P loves getting her hands dirty. She had a fun time with cat. She glued on the shapes, then I drew a face and she stamped (with paint) her hands as whiskers.

C is for Cross: Another activity she did with the Farmer. I made this around Easter and still had it so she colored and then practiced cutting with her scissors on this page.

C collage: lots of C things this week and tons of stickers of C items. She loved the sparkly castle sticker and took it off of the collage several times throughout the week

Cat Cc dot page: from 1+1+1=1.

Cat coloring page: from a coloring book.

Caterpillar C: Sweet P loves caterpillars and went to town on her letter animal this week. I love how this one turned out.

COAH C is for Caterpillar magnet page: She did this with the Farmer and used a dry erase marker.

Tot Trays:

COAH caterpillar counting: These go through 20, but we just did 1-10.

COAH Cc Caterpillar Color Puzzles: There are several more colors of these and she had fun doing so many different colors.

Several weeks ago at the Farmer's Market, this was the Earn your PhB activity. We didn't have time for her to do it there so I stuck it in the bag for a letter C activity. The caterpillar had holes you stuck through a pencil. She colored each flower section a different color.

Boggle Spelling: I'd write a C word out on the dry erase board and she'd find the letters on the Boggle block. This was a good letter identification game.

Upstairs Shelves:

Caterpillar puzzle from Target $1 spot

Melissa & Doug car matching puzzle

Jingle Bells: We did more jingle bells this week and I added two pitchers for her to pour with. These were played with A LOT during C week.

Tow truck car puzzle from Michael's

Geo Pegboard: We did color matching and counting with her geo pegboard this week. She loved stacking them, which doesn't always like to do.

Books:

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Have You Seen My Cat? by Eric Carle

Clarabella's Teeth by An Vrombaut

Caterpillar Spring Butterfly Summer by Susan Hood

Cat Secrets by Jef Czekaj

Very Hungry Caterpillar Activity

With the book as a guide, I found items in our school stuff that served as food for the caterpillar. I was able to find several stickers, we used pompoms for all the fruit and things I couldn't find I cut out of construction paper (hence the orange salami).

What we used:

1 apple: red pompom

2 pears: pear sticker

3 plums: blue pompoms

4 oranges: orange pompoms

5 strawberries: pink pompoms

1 piece of chocolate cake: sticker

1 ice cream cone: foam sticker

1 pickle: green construction paper

1 piece of cheese: yellow construction paper

1 piece of salami: orange construction paper

1 lollipop: foam sticker

1 slice of pie: sticker

1 piece of sausage: orange construction paper

1 cupcake: sticker

1 watermelon: a piece of watermelon that used to be attached to a melon baller

leaf: green piece of felt

(this is the pic of our original, our new looked exactly the same minus a few legs)

We made another caterpillar like the one here (you can find directions for the caterpillar in that post) and then read the book. While we read the book, I took off the caterpillar's face (which sounds terrible, but he had to eat!) and she dropped the food into the paper towel roll as I read. He was a FULL caterpillar by the end! After he ate the leaf, I replaced his face and we wrapped him in a blanket (his chrysalis). We put him on a shelf and I told her we'd check on him after her nap.

Of course, I forgot to turn him into a butterfly while she slept so I ran to do it while the Farmer watched her for a few minutes (let's just say those few minutes turned into a disaster after she cut her heel on the dishwasher). Eventually he made the switch to a butterfly and I brought it out to show her. She loved it and likes to fly him around.

Such a simple activity to show the process of caterpillar to butterfly.

Whatcha Eatin' Wednesday?

Pretend it's Wednesday just for a minute, k? I meant to post this yesterday and the day got away from me. I woke up at 5:30am (which does NOT happen in this house unless we're goin' on a road trip) and couldn't go back to sleep. I got movin', but lost all my gusto about 1pm when Sweet P went down for a nap. That's when I was going to post this and it didn't happen so pretend it did. K? Thanks.

Since we're on letter C this week I decided to make her a caterpillar lunch yesterday. I think it came out just as cute as can be! And check out the after pic. I had one very hungry caterpillar!

Caterpillar body: cheese toast (or grilled cheese without the tops)

Caterpillar face: raisin eyes and a fruit strip mouth, antenna are made out of crust

Leaves: spinach

Flower/Sun (whatever you want it to be): oranges and a small tomato

She went for the tomato first.

All done!

Potato Stamping!

Last week was a bit rainy and there were a couple of days when we were cooped up after naptime. I've been wanting to try potato stamping with Sweet P for awhile (and I had some potatoes that were starting to look around the room if ya know what I mean) so we gave it a shot last week. Cutting the stamps was a little difficult, but I think my C, 4 and cat look pretty good! (We were focusing on the letter C and #4 last week.)

The hardest part for Sweet P was NOT eating the potatoes! She loves potatoes and could not understand why I wouldn't let her eat them. That's why there are black walnuts in the pictures...I needed a snack distraction!

The cat was, of course, her absolute favorite. I also got out two block stamps (1 spot at Target) she'd gotten as gifts for her birthday. We had a great time with this and I hung the butcher paper on our basement door. She loves to point to it and say "Made that!"

The Craft: Potato Stamping

What you need:

1 to 2 potatoes (or more if you're feeling adventurous!)

sharp knife (mamas only!)

butcher paper

stamp pad or paint

Cut the potatoes in half and dry them off a bit. Cut out the shape you'd like using the knife (remember to cut it backwards if you are doing letters or numbers...I learned this the hard way). Once you've got it how you want it, stamp away!

You could also take these outside and stamp with water on the concrete!

Sweet P kept herself busy with her scissors while I cut out the stamps. Probably should have done that while she napped, but she had a blast with those scissors!

Rainy Day Activities: Colorful Caterpillar

The past few days have been rainy as all get out around here. On Thursday morning we were up SUPER early (which if you know Sweet P at all, any time before 7:45 classifies as super early) so we had time to kill before heading to Trader Joe's and Costco for groceries. The Farmer left at 7:15am and 2 seconds it later the sky opened up and dropped marble sized hail on the ground. It was crazy!

Anyway, with that time we made a colorful caterpillar. We used recycled goods and some fun pipe cleaners she got for her birthday. As usual, I did most of the work. She picked out the colors of the legs and was cutting paper with these scissors (also a birthday gift). Colorful Caterpillar is well loved, he even came grocery shopping with us!

The Craft: Colorful Caterpillar

What you need:

1 paper towel roll (empty of course)

scraps of tissue paper

pipe cleaners

glue stick

small piece of cardboard

Sharpie

Sweet P tore strips of tissue paper and I glued them with the glue stick to the paper towel roll. Then, we twisted pipe cleaners around the body to form legs.

Our caterpillar has 12 legs, you do not have to use that many! Cut a small circle the size of the end of the paper towel roll out of the small piece of cardboard. Draw a face with your Sharpie. Fit the circle into the end of the roll. Amazingly my cut out fit perfectly so I didn't need to tape/glue it on.

My favorite part is that he can stand up on his own!

Viola! Colorful Caterpillar! This project would go great with The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Caterpillar Kisses!

Tot School: Easter Week

Sweet P is 23.5 mos old

What a great week we had, even though we spent most of our days inside due to yucky, rainy weather. We did lots of Easter-inspired activities and spent a lot of time
with the Farmer.

Monday

AM: Playdate at an indoor playground with friends.

PM: We dyed Easter eggs with the Farmer. This was a tough activity, but she had a really good time looking at all the colors and coloring on the eggs.

I got out her sleep tent and she had a blast letting all her dolls slide down the "slide."

She did the egg matching activity and played with the Farmer before he went to his soccer game.

Tuesday

AM: Discussed Palm Sunday and read from Bible for Me: Easter and The Easter Story (a bible sticker/activity book from Nana) about Jesus riding into town on a donkey. We have a stuffed Jesus doll and I had him ride in on her stick horse. She thought this was really fun, although she wasn't a fan of waving the palms we got at church. She also liked saying Hosanna!

I don't have pictures, but we watched 1+1+1=1 letter C PowerPoint for toddlers and did the letters E and C on Starfall. There were matching activities with the E and C letters and she did really well sorting big E and little e.

I got out a basket of ribbon and let her go to town with it.

Playdoh with eggs and cookie cutters. I also gave her these animal candle holders (for birthday candles) and she liked digging around in the playdoh with them.

Auntie K gave her a marker that has a marker on one side and a rolling stamp on the other. It took her awhile to figure it out, but she loved the stamping.

Wednesday

AM: Sweet P spent the morning with the Farmer, while I worked. They played in her room and went to run some errands. Before her lunch we planted our indoor garden (which will eventually become outdoor). She loved this activity and scooping the dirt, see more pictures here.

PM: After seeing several pics of kids blowing bubbles on Facebook, I decided we'd brave the cold and try to blow some bubbles. She doesn't quite have it down, but I figure we'll get plenty of practice this summer! She puts her mouth on the wand, which doesn't always create the best bubbles! Even though she didn't blow any, she had fun with all our different wands and watching me blow them.

After bubble blowing we read about Jesus washing his disciples feet and I washed her feet in the kitchen. She thought this was so fun and wanted me to wash them again and again. Afterward, she played in the bowl of water and wanted to wash my feet. So cute.

We also had some fun with sunglasses!

This memory game came with our Easter egg kit so she matched up the pairs and then I tried a game where I set 3 in front of her. I told her what they were and had her repeat them, then I told her to close her eyes and I took one away. She knew the one that was missing twice, but I think it may have been a coincidence!

Thursday

AM: Playdate at a friend's house

PM: After her nap we did several activities with paint! I found the bunny and chick ideas at Meet the Dubiens. I cut out shapes while she was sleeping and she glued them to the paper with my help. Then I painted her hands and we did the whiskers and feet. She really liked having her hands painted, but wasn't too into the egg painting we did afterward.

I saw this on B Inspired, Mama! We dipped Easter egg halves in paint and painted with them. She was more interested in painting with her fingers though!

Do a Dot: I made a C page inspired by 1+1+1=1 with C items: caterpillar, cat, car and cross. I'd tell her to color the cat, the car, etc. and then she went to town on the rest of the page.

C is for Cross: I slipped this page in her Trace Erase board and she had a fun time drawing all over it.

Stickers: I gave her a bunch of stickers and let her decorate a birthday present for her friend G.

Friday

AM: We read about Jesus' death on Friday morning, then we had a doctor's appt and grocery shopping. We got home just in time for lunch and some coloring. Then she took a 3 hour nap!

PM: Sweet P spent what was left of the afternoon with the Farmer and then we went to a Good Friday service that night.

Saturday

AM: We had a fun-filled Easter egg hunt and brunch with some dear friends. What a great time all the kids had. Sweet P loved picking up the eggs and opening them to see what was inside! We spent the whole morning there.

PM: Despite it being cloudy and cold, I took Sweet P to the playground because we desperately needed some time outdoors! We played and then took a quick walk. After we got home we made a toilet paper bunny! I love his little cotton ball tail.

We read several Easter books before Skyping with Gammie!

Sunday

AM: After church, we headed out to the farm for an Easter egg hunt and picnic. It was a much nicer day and I'm so glad we went! Sweet P also got to dig in the garden and look for worms! She wouldn't hold them though even though I was tough and held one out for her!

PM: She played outside with the Farmer and then we took a family walk before an early bedtime.

Find out what other moms of tots are doing at 1+1+1=1