The Very hungry Caterpillar

This week in the toddler room we started our new topic Growth and Life cycles. We focused on the life cycle of a butterfly. We linked this to the Very Hungry caterpillar. We used our story sack to look at the book with props and puppets and enjoyed making the sequence to match the story. This was a nice way for us to look at size and growth. As we explored the sack we discussed fruits that we eat at home and comparing healthy treats and non-healthy treats. To further extend this activity we then explored a tuft tray with different types of pasta and fruit. We used the pasta to explore our imaginative skills pretending they were caterpillar’s cocoons and butterflies. As we explored the tray we listened to the story again and added caterpillar and butterfly soft toys and small world insects. As we listened and played we were able to use the caterpillars to act out our favourite parts of the story and link our own ideas like adding role play foods and feeding our caterpillars. To further extend our learning and links to the caterpillar story we were able to taste the same fruits as the caterpillar in the story. We then got creative by making our own fruit prints and finger paint caterpillars. Some of us extended this further by painting our hands and creating beautiful butterflies. Well done toddlers what a lovely week of learning the life cycle of a butterfly!