~La Oruga Muy Hambrienta~ The Very Hungry Caterpillar Nature Play

We have loved diving deeper into the world of The Very Hungry Caterpillar this week! It coincides with Week 4 in the second series of Con mi Familia where children can learn all about food in Spanish and my own littles have really enjoyed the extra projects to help the book come alive.

Earlier this week we did a leaf threading activity to help our poor little orugitas with tummy aches feel better (just like in the book!) We have tried leaf threading before but it really stuck this time because my kiddos were motivated that the more leaves their orugas “ate” the better they would feel! We started by just painting some sticks to look like the Hungry Caterpillar and then I hot glued some twine onto one end (I glued it instead of tying a know just to keep it from being too bulky- you don’t want the leaf to just rip to shreds…even though it will with a toddler let’s be real). Then we went outside and found as many green leaves as we could for their little orugas to eat! I modeled for them how to thread the stick through one side of the leaf and then back through the other side. Older children can even practice a simple sewing stitch with this! Mine ended up poking it through a million times and tying it all up to create a jumbled mess of satisfied work time. They loved it, I loved it, it was a total win.

Today we had a picnic by a river and I wanted to bring along a little project for them to work on if they were interested. Once they saw their hole punchers they were instantly sold. We collected leaves (making sure to find a few red ones for the orugas head!) and then settled down on a blanket to work. It was a simple project to bring along in my bag, all we needed were two strips of cardboard, little hole punchers and some glue sticks.

I showed the girls how they could make little leaf circles with their hole puncher to make the orugas body and then glue them on the cardboard. They were sold instantly. I sat in silence just soaking in all the quiet time in nature as they worked, cutting circles and playing with glue. You can see from the pictures that one of the girls really followed the idea of creating an oruga and the other just loved playing with glue and cutting leaf circles- no worries over here with that! I love introducing an idea to my kiddos and if they want to follow along then that’s great and if not then that’s great too! It is really their process and the end result doesn’t matter- it’s the journey, right?!

**Hole punchers are actually kind of difficult to use with paper so if you have younger kiddos, try using leaves- way way easier for them to do on their own!**

Needless to say, it has been a fun-filled week with lots of reading, nature crafts and talking about orugas and comida! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend ahead and stay tuned- more amazing projects heading your way soon.

These are the hole punchers we use and we LOVE them. Nice and big for tiny hands to use easily:

Spanish words to practice with these activities:

Oruga (oh-roo-gah) – caterpillar

Hambrienta (ahm-bryehn-tah) – hungry

Palo (pah-loh) – stick

Vamos a pintar las orugas (bah-mohs ah peen-tahr lahs oh-roo-gahs) Let’s paint the caterpillars

Hoja (oh-hah) – leaf

Perforadora (pehr-foh-rah-doh-rah) – hole puncher

Pegamento (peh-gah-mehn-toh) – glue

Vamos a crear orugas (bah-mohs a kreh-ahr oh-roo-gahs) Let’s make (create) caterpillars!

*Bold shows where to emphasize the word*