Caterpillar Counting and Matching Activity
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of my children’s favorite books. When my son was a baby I found a plush version of the book with a strawberry teether and a caterpillar baby toy. I must have read the story to him a hundred times a day. I used the books I read to him and my daughter as inspiration when I started teaching them even before school age. I taught them shapes, letters, numbers, colors by making fun themed activities from stories I read to them. It brought their favorite stories to life while providing sensory learning, which is key in child development.
By the end of the day the my pearls of wisdom have escaped me, but you really don’t need a how to on creative sensory activities. Appeal to your child’s interests and they’ll love it. If you have more than one child, like I do. Well then you have your own little critic who is going to ask why you copied the book instead of drawing worms in each circle. This is were that wine glass comes back into play.
No lie, at first I drew hearts in the circles because my daughter loves hearts and the color pink. My eight year old critic thought it was weird, so I had a 16 oz. glass of wine and “copied” the book. I was so damn excited I brushed my hair, put on make-up and changed out of my leggings like I was going on stage to accept The National Medal of Arts. I didn’t care that my son thought I copied a book and my husband thought my pairs looked like moldy guitars. My daughter was so excited she reached octaves that would wreck a ship when she saw it. I got my award and a little tipsy.