The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities: Letter Sort

It is time for Virtual Book Club for Kids! Our featured author this month is the classic Eric Carle. We decided to feature The Very Hungry Caterpillar and a fun letter sort activity. Plus, we have a great app to share too.

If you are new to Virtual Book Club for Kids here is a little background. The Educators’ Spin On It, Toddler Approved and Rainy Day Mum have put together a wonderful line-up of great authors to explore. On the second Thursday of each month, talented bloggers will be sharing one of the three featured books by the highlighted author that month. Each blogger shares an activity or craft to compliment one of the three books. You are invited to try out as many of the ideas that you feel would be a good fit for your kids.

Now, onto the Eric Carle book and learning activity, we chose this month.

Full Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. I was given the app to check out for free and was compensated by Story Toys for sharing about the app. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Learning Activity, Book and App

The Book: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Eric Carle books have been a staple in many classrooms and homes across the world for years. One of the best known is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

A very hungry caterpillar spends the days of the weeks chomping through lots of yummy foods until finally he makes a cocoon around himself. Then, we see him transform into a butterfly beautifully illustrated by Carle’s painted paper collages.

This book is wonderful for teaching about the days of the week, healthy foods, counting and the life cycle of a butterfly. We chose to do a fun literacy activity to compliment the book.

The Activity: Letter Sorts

My 3 and 4 year-old are learning about writing letters so I though it would be fun to do a letter sort to help their visual discrimination skills.

Materials Needed: 26 green circle color coding labels, 3 read pouch caps, 1 green pipe cleaner, 3 legal size envelopes, black marker, tape, and scissors

1. Write each of these words/phrases on envelopes: straight, curve, straight & curve.

2. On each green circle label, write each letter of the alphabet. We used lowercase letters, but you could also use uppercase letters.

3. To make the head of the three caterpillars take red pouch caps and add two antennae made from the green pipe cleaner (cut the pipe cleaner in 6 pieces). We just bent the pipe cleaner around the cap.

4. Attach each caterpillar head to the left side of each envelope with tape.

You are now ready to play and learn.

Ask your child to look at each letter sticker and describe whether the letter is made with straight lines, curves or both. Place the green sticker on the correct envelope to form the caterpillar’s body.

Talk about how many letters are made with only straight lines versus those only made with curves. Which letters have both straight and curve lines?

Categorizing letters helps children notice similarities and differences. This skill is important as they begin to read and write.

To extend the activity further, your child could cut pictures from magazines or ads that begin with each sound on the caterpillar body. He can store his pictures inside the envelope.

If you would like to see another Eric Carle literacy activity, check out the Letter Flies we created for The Very Busy Spider.

The App: First Words

The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Friends First Words app is a terrific way to integrate the learning of new words with the beauty of Carle’s illustrations.

As you tap a picture, you will see an image and hear the word. Tap again and you will hear the sound the image makes. It’s a great way for little ones to build vocabulary. There are 13 pages in the pop-up book followed by question review pages.

It doesn’t stop there though! You can change a setting and now your child can learn a new language (Spanish, French or German). In this second language setting, you hear the word in the primary language followed by the second language and then the sound the image makes. A super fun way to learn.

My kids have enjoyed playing with the app and I love that my preschoolers have been picking up vocabulary in Spanish!

Now, it’s time to explore some other great learning activities and crafts to compliment Eric Carle’s books. Check other The Tiny Seed , The Mixed-Up Chameleon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar activities.