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Happy Birthday Eric Carle!


Since 1966, Eric Carle has been writing and illustrating some of the best children’s books in the world. Carlie’s lyrical and visual masterpieces have been helping children all over the world fall in love with reading for decades. With multiple books on PCHP’s recommended book list, Eric Carle is definitely one of our favorite authors to introduce to families. Happy Birthday, Mr. Eric Carle! Thank you for all your works of art that PCHP families nationwide love and cherish.

 

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A Very Hungry Caterpillar Craft

In honor of his birthday, here is an easy, fun, art activity based on Eric Carle’s best-seller, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

 

You will need:

  • Red, green, and blue paint
  • Construction paper
  • Paint brush
  • Black marker

Directions:

  1. Place a piece of construction paper on a flat surface.
  2. Help your child paint the palm of their hand green and their four fingers blue.
  3. Have your child press their hand to the paper to create one section of the caterpillar’s body.
  4. Repeat these steps until your caterpillar is the length you want.
  5. With a paintbrush, paint a red circle on top of the last body section of your caterpillar to make a head.
  6. With the marker or paint, draw eyes, a nose, antennas, and anything else to complete your caterpillar.

 

Keep In Mind:

Have The Very Hungry Caterpillar handy while you and your child are doing this activity. Talk with your child about the number of legs and antennas, ask your child about the colors of the caterpillar. What else is a circle? What do you like to eat when you are hungry? Have them add their favorite healthy food to the picture. When you are finished eith the activity, read the book together.

*This idea from the blog KeepsMeOutOfMischief


Great Eric Carle Books:

Use this day to read with your children. Any of these Eric Carle books provide wonderful opportunities to read with your children. Please click on any of the images to purchase the book.

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What does an elephant do? It stomps its foot. Can you?

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A big happy frog, a plump purple cat, a handsome blue horse, and a soft yellow duck–all parade across the pages of this delightful book.

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Zoo animals from polar bear to walrus make their distinctive sounds for each other, while children imitate the sounds for the zookeeper.

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A newly hatched caterpillar eats his way through all kinds of food.

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Only the tiniest seed survives the winter and blooms into a beautiful flower.

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“Do you want to be my friend?” asks a little mouse of a horse, a peacock, an alligator, and others in this charming story.

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The chameleon’s life was not very exciting until the day it discovered it could change not only its color but its shape and size, too.

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A quiet little cricket who dreams of rubbing his wings together to make a sound just like so many other animals finally achieves his goal.

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Little Cloud likes to stand out from the crowd. When all the other clouds drift up, he goes his own way, changing shapes to become a sheep, an airplane, a shark and a funny clown.

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The horse wants to go for a ride, the cow wants to eat some grass, and the sheep wants to run in the meadow—but where is the very busy spider?

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