Did you know that The Very Hungry Caterpillar has it’s very own dedicated day of the year? Yes, it’s March 20th. It seems like the perfect day since that is also the first day of spring. Here’s a great list of The Very Hungry Caterpillar activities that all have to do with building literacy skills. We love our Eric Carle Book Activities!
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Activities
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The Book

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is the story of a caterpillar who eats his way through the days of the week. In the end, he turns into a beautiful caterpillar.
Alphabet
Hungry Caterpillar Letter Sort helps kids look at the shape of letters.
Learning Your Name
Make a name caterpillar with this idea from Toddler Approved.
Sequencing
The Very Hungry Caterpillar lends itself very well to sequencing activities.
Try this clever sequencing activity from Kreative in Life.
Or, try this sequencing idea from School Time Snippets.
Printable Books
Caterpillar Days of the Week Book from 123 Homeschool 4 Me shares a way to practice reading and spelling the days of the week.
Rubber Boots and Elf Shoes has a printable to make your own caterpillar book.
Vocabulary
Try these cute word puzzles from Playdough to Plato
Learn words from the story with these printable cards from Homeschool Creations.
Comprehension
LEGO lovers will adore this comprehension idea from The Educators’ Spin On It.
Try this storytelling idea from the Imagination Tree to work on retelling the story.
Fine Motor and Writing Practice
This threading activity from Here Come the Girls is super cute.
Buggy and Buddy share a threading necklace that also doubles as a craft.
Fun Learning for Kids has a fun playdough caterpillar invitation to create idea.
Or try this playdough idea from Powerful Mothering.
Eat through all the food with this fine motor punch idea from Modern Preschool.
Totschooling shares tracing and coloring sheets to compliment the book.
Parenting Chaos shares a caterpillar puzzle with us.
More Literacy Ideas
Pretend play and storytelling are in order for this caterpillar puppet from Rhythms of Play.
Work on visual discrimination with this I Spy activity from Simple Play Ideas.
Work on following directions as you put together these caterpillar cookies from A Little Pinch of Perfect.
Have lots of fun with these The Very Hungry Caterpillar activities.
Looking for even more book activities? Check out our monthly preschool literacy units. They are centered around great books!—>Monthly Preschool Literacy Units
Jackie says
We love to read books and contInue the learing with crafts and activities. Eric carle is a wonderful author and many of his books are favoritEs of ours!
Jazmin says
Our favorite caterpillar! We worked on learning our name.
danielle hammelef says
I love activities related to books. You’ve provided so many excellent ways to connect literature to real life for kids. Thank you!
velma says
Thanks for all the great ideas. i am helping My almost-3 yo grandson learn his name so we will be doing the very hungry caterpillar paper plate name game from toddler approved. he also loves to paint so he will be sponge painting a caterpillar and adding the eyes, antenna, and legs so he can hang it on his art wall.
Catherine Maguire says
This would be USEFUL as I work with early years.
Nell says
the Very hungry Caterpillar was one of my favorites and now it is one of my daughters. So many fun Literacy activities in this collection. Thank you for including our Very hungry caterpillar puppet!