A lot of my spring and summer childhood memories involve insects: trying not to squish all the worms on the path while walking to school with my best friend in the rain, catching fireflies on summer evenings with my sister, and playing with caterpillars on the sidewalk in front of my house. Although I am not as welcoming to insects nowadays (haha!), I still think they are such incredible creatures. Did you know that there are MORE THAN 20,000 TYPES OF CATERPILLARS IN THE WORLD?! (I sure didn’t. Not until I looked it up just now.)
Anywho, this craft provides a way for you to appreciate and enjoy these awesome little bugs indoors throughout springtime 🙂
Materials
- Paper
- Pom poms
- Marker
- Scissors
- Glue
- Scrap pieces of cardboard
Directions
- Fold a piece of paper in half, lengthwise, and cut down the middle. (This part is actually optional, but I thought it was a good way to save paper AND to showcase the caterpillar.)
- On another piece of paper, draw the caterpillar’s head and face and cut it out. I thought my toddler did a pretty good job with her caterpillar’s face! Those eyes seem to stare deep into my soul…
Growing up, did your art teacher ever tell you to “fold your paper like a hot dug bun?” Mine did. 
See, I told you! Those eyes.
3. Next, draw a line on your strip of paper. I made mine curvy, while my toddler did more of a straight-ish line.
4. Then, glue the head of the caterpillar at one end of the line.
5. To make gluing that pom poms down a lot easier, first squeeze some glue onto a scrap piece of cardboard (or a small paper plate).
6. Next, dip a pom pom in the glue and place it on the line to start creating the body of the caterpillar. This is a great opportunity to model what to do for your child (if they’re at that age), as well as for them to work on their fine motor skills. For older kids, this can also give them a chance to make creative choices (i.e. create a certain pattern of colors with the pom poms or do something completely random).
7. Draw antennae and eyes (we drew 2, even though in real life, they actually have 6!) You can also draw tiny legs underneath the pom poms if you’d like, or just leave it be.
8. ENJOY your caterpillars! We hung ours up on our fridge, just low enough so my toddler could still reach it and feel the pom poms, but high enough so the dog won’t try to eat it.
I hope you and your kids have fun with this one! I really loved that my daughter was able to do almost this whole project by herself (all I did was cut). It has been fun to watch her develop her independence and grow in her creativity!
On another note, things will probably be slowing down a bit here in the blogging corner of my life as I am gearing up to return to the school building. I am hoping to post at least once a week, alternating between music and craft ideas. I am SUPER excited about some of the upcoming songs and crafts I plan on sharing… my head is truly spinning! (In a good way.)
Once again, thanks for checking out this blog! I hope you and your little ones enjoy the crafts… or the music… or both! 🙂
Happy crafting & music-making!
– Hannah