We had fun today being inspired by the famous Eric Carle book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". I've seen some awesome caterpillar prints around blog land lately using a balloon and thought my boys would really enjoy this technique.
Before we actually painted our caterpillars we had fun making one out of our balloons first.
Don't you just love how kids find joy in the simplest of things??
Anyways, on to our balloon painted caterpillar. Here is mine pictured below. They are so simple to make.
Simply dab a small balloon into paint and place it onto your paper. The caterpillar in the story has touches of blue in his body so we put some blue into our green paint and swirled it around a bit before dabbing our balloon into it.
While we waited for the caterpillar to dry we had fun watching some You Tube videos of caterpillar's transforming into butterflies. I just love the time lapsed clips that show the whole process. My boys were amazed by it. And since we didn't actually have any cool caterpillars around our house to watch the process, You Tube was next best. haha
Then we came back to our caterpillars and added some finishing touches like eyes, nose, antennae, lets. I just love this picture of Luke below. He was so proud of his picture and all the details he was adding. He even added eyebrows.
I love that my children are very artistic! They didn't want to stop at just making a mere caterpillar like I did. They had to create the whole scene. At one point Andy said, "I need some white paint now so I can paint the white clouds in the sky like the real artists do." Oh, my sweet Andy...if he only understood how much of a REAL artist he is!
And this is why I enjoy creating things with my children. Not only are the paintings simply stunning, but it shows the creativity and color of a child. I just want to soak in their sweet innocence and beauty every day. My children are my greatest blessing!
I also printed out these cute Very Hungry Caterpillar size sequencing pictures from 1+1+1=1. I had Luke practice putting them in order from smallest to biggest, biggest to smallest, etc. and I also did some simple math problems with them. This story is obviously way out of my 6yr old's league, although he loves crafting with us in good fun, so he didn't need this step. 1+1+1=1 has several other printables you should check out.
So now that the caterpillars are done, we wanted to do something with a butterfly so we decided to make some wax butterflies. We did this last Fall making leaves, but I thought it would be fun to make butterflies.
1. Start by printing out a butterfly clip art picture from the Internet. I printed mine 4x6 size.
2. Place a sheet of wax paper on top of the butterfly and use a permanent marker to trace the outline of the butterfly.
3. Place the wax paper onto your ironing board and put crayon shavings over the butterfly print.
4. Place another sheet of wax paper on top of the crayon shavings, covering the entire butterfly.
5. Place a kitchen towel over the wax paper and apply your iron to the towel. Just enough to melt the crayon shavings below.
6. You are left with what looks like a big mess. haha But just turn it over and cut along the outline of the butterfly you drew.
7. And you are left with this. Pretty fun stuff!! You can even punch a hole in them and hang them some where with some string if you want to.
Linking up to THESE Parties.
Happy Crafting!!
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21 comments:
three super cute crafts in one post! I love them all. I have got to try some of that wax paper heat art. So cute.
Wowie! I am going to file this away in "things-to-do-with-Toph-when-he's-bigger." Also, I can SO do this with my students...thanks so much for sharing.
These are fantastic ideas! I'm going to pin these on Pinterest so that I can refer back to them in the fall when I start home-preschooling my son.
walking here with a smile.. have a nice day ~ =D
Regards,
http://www.lonelyreload.com (A Growing Teenager Diary) ..
Hi, I'm a new follower dropping by through Chronicles of a Crazy Mom.
Great preschool crafts, I never tire of The Very Hungry Caterpillar story. Which is just as well, since my 1 year old doesn't either!
Glad to have found you!
Super cute caterpiller!
I am hoppin from "Who in the World" blog hop.. I just love your blog! So cute and so many cute ideas to help me keep my kids busy.. I am now follwoing you and I hop you visit my little blog and follow me back!
hugs,
Crystal
http://www.ssmandhersidekids.blogspot.com
These are super cute! I will have to remember this when my kids are a little older.
Brilliant ideas! My daughter loves the very hungry caterpillar at the moment so they will be perfect to fill a rainy day!
Hopping in from World Blog Hop, following and can't wait to explore your blog!
Alison
www.heavenlyhandmades.blogspot.com
What a brilliant project! And you tube is the best - you can literally find anything on there!
Thanks for linking to the Creating Success Worldwide blog hop!! Hope you'll come back again next week!
Jill @ Creating my way to Success
http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/
I love this book. I would love for you to stop by http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/ on Monday to link up your crafts and any other projects you would like to share.
You did some awesome stuff with that book! I love the balloon caterpillar!
Love the balloon painted caterpillar! what a fun and different way to paint.
OMG ... I jus love the creative depiction ... the caterpillar n the butterfly are both so so cute !!!
- Smita
littlefoodjunction.blogspot.com
(fun food ideas for lil ones)
What wonderful crafts! I really love the balloon idea!
Thanks for linking to Read.Explore.Learn. This counts as an entry in the Summer Reading Challenge.
Oh, I love the balloon painting! This is something we have not painted with yet & must try soon! My girls adore balloons (like most kids) so this would be great!
Your caterpillar came out so cute. I have to remember this for next time we work on the story - one of our faves!
Would love to invite you to link up to the Sunday Showcase - our child centered linky party - http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com/2011/07/sunday-showcase-kid-friendly-linky.html
Bernadete
Following you back ;) You've got some awesome ideas! I remember doing the wax paper and crayon art when I was a kid, but I haven't thought about it in years! Thanks for the reminder!
http://fumblingthroughparenthood.blogspot.com/
I just love projects that involve books, and this one is one of my most favorites! Looks like a lot of fun!
Carlee
www.ladybirdln.com
I love this! I have been wanting to incorporate books and crafts together and this is perfect.
Kelly
herecomesthesun-kelly.blogspot.com
Wow! These turned out really beautiful. Plan on doing The Very Hungry Caterpillar theme soon, going to pin this so I don't forget this cool idea.
The Very Hungry Caterpilar is one my favorite book for children ! I love the way you used this as a base for further teaching and activities. By the way, I didn't know this technique with the paper, : it seems to look amazing ! I can't wait to test it !
http://bettyd-momaworkinprogress.blogspot.fr/
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