The Very Hungry Caterpillar

To introduce our topic of Healthy Eating we are starting with a story that may be familiar to some of you, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  

There is a lovely version of the story by the Singing Hands team here. Can you practise joining in with some of the signs for this story? 

Get rid of your wriggles before watching by having a little shake about so you are ready to concentrate and listen. Enjoy! 

Communicate

There are so many wonderful learning opportunities to explore together after listening to this story.

• Talk about concepts such as:   little/big     night/day      hungry/full   healthy/ unhealthy 
• Name your favourite foods that the caterpillar eats, which ones are healthy and which should be treats?
• Explore number by counting how many foods he eats. Introduce sequencing by talking about the days of the week, which day comes next? what day is it tomorrow? 
• Explore colour by naming the different colours of fruit he eats, could you find and collect objects of the same colour around you? 

Activities  

Now that you have listened to and talked about the story together, we would like you to try out some of these activities. We will keep adding more to keep you busy. There are also some printable activities available for you to download, if appropriate. If you would prefer copies of these activities to be sent home then let us know. 

Sensory Sock Caterpillar 

Why don't you make use of those odd socks we all seem to have and make a sock caterpillar? In this tutorial they use cotton wool to stuff the sock caterpillar but to make this more of a sensory experience we thought you could try to gather lots of different materials. This could be foil, scrunched up paper, dried beans, squishy balloons filled with foam or sand, spiky balls, tinsel or anything else you can think of.  Make a sensory tub of these items and spend some time exploring all of the materials together before making the caterpillar.   

Could you use your finished caterpillar to retell the story together?

Take learning into the kitchen

Explore different types of healthy eating foods with your child. To develop independence skills, where appropriate, let your child help you grate, cut, stir and smash various foods. This will allow them to explore a range of textures as well as practise a range of functional motor skills. You can choose fruit and vegetables together and make them into face sandwiches or even bugs!

Make sure you remind your child of the importance of hand washing before this activity. Try to promote their independence and thinking skills as much as possible, prompting them with questions such as "What could we use to cut the fruit?" "Where do the peelings go?"  and don't forget to get them to help wash and tidy up again after the activity. 

Challenge: Could you use your senses to explore, feel and taste some different fruits this week just like the very hungry caterpillar did, maybe you could try something you have never tried before? which one is your favourite? which ones did you not like? Please get in touch to tell us all about it. 

Get Moving 

We love our Yoga sessions at school so maybe you could try out this Cosmic Kids yoga video at home. It is based around the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar 

 

Get Creative 

Try one of these creative art activities linked to the story (again, please do ask us if you need paint or any other art supplies providing!) 

 

Why don't you try some printing with different fruits in paint? 

A top tip to make it easier is to put a fork into the apple first!