Eric Carle Activities for Preschoolers

Immerse your students in the world of one of my favorite children’s authors with some Eric Carle activities for preschoolers! Choose your favorites from the list of Eric Carle book-inspired activities for kids below. Then start gathering your supplies and checking out books to have some book-inspired fun with your students!

The spotlight was on Eric Carle this week in preschool, as we continued the month’s theme of “Celebrating Our Favorite Authors”. Mary Poppins and I both love his books, so choosing him as a favorite author was easy! Here are some fun Eric Carle activities for preschoolers!

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1. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Retelling
At the literacy center, the kiddos and I had fun making Teaching Heart’s Ziploc Baggie Caterpillar. I printed out Teaching Heart’s free printable and followed the directions listed on her site. Since the food pictures are small, I cut them out in strips. This way, the students just had to cut in between each picture. We put the food in order based on Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Then we retold the story, “feeding” the caterpillar as we went along. This was an awesome retelling tool for the children!

2. A House for Hermit Crab Craft
At the art center, Mary Poppins did a craft based on Eric Carle’s A House for Hermit Crab. She found the idea here on I Heart Crafty Things. The children enjoyed decorating their hermit crab’s shell, and they absolutely adored the little shell crabs that Mary Poppins made for them!

3. Free Reading with Tons of Eric Carle’s Books
In the reading center, the children read a variety of Eric Carle’s books. Additionally, Mary Poppins combed our local library’s shelves for non-fiction books related to Eric Carle’s stories. For example, she brought in books about real caterpillars and butterflies for The Very Hungry Caterpillar. There were also non-fiction books about ladybugs for The Grouchy Ladybug, as well as ocean books for A House for Hermit Crab.

4. A Visit from a Hermit Crab
On Thursday, one of our kiddos brought in his family’s hermit crabs for the day! What a wonderful, real way for the children to connect with Eric Carle’s A House for Hermit Crab. The boys and girls had fun watching the hermit crabs crawl along the table and poke out of their shells.

5. Caterpillar Necklace
For a Fun Friday center today, the students made a very hungry caterpillar necklace from Living Montessori Now’s Montessori-Inspired Eric Carle Activities. It was very simple and clean-looking, which I loved. Most of the kids were clamoring to make one, although a few chose not to.

6. Leaf & Rock Number Matching
For the life of me, I cannot remember how Mary Poppins and I came up with this activity. I am almost positive it was partially inspired by one of The Mailbox Magazines we have. If I’m incorrect, I will come back and share the correct source. The children matched up numbered rocks with the appropriate “eaten” leaves. For example, the rock with a 5 on it was matched to the leaf with 5 holes in it.

7. Very Hungry Caterpillar Play Dough
I placed green play dough and red play dough in our Discovery Center. The kiddos used the play dough to make their own version of Eric Carle’s famous caterpillar. The goofballs ending up squishing all the dough together, which left us with a very disgusting shade of green play dough! Despite that, they still enjoyed making their own caterpillars.

8. Eric Carle Inspired Art
In the past, I’ve had so much fun creating art with my students based on Eric Carle’s method. We didn’t get the chance to do it this year, but it is soooo much fun! The kids and I would paint on tissue paper — using a variety of colors and brushstrokes. Once that was dried, we would cut different shapes and pieces out of the painted tissue paper. From there, the children would make animals and characters out of the pieces. The favorites, of course, were the caterpillars and butterflies!

Those are just some of the Eric Carle activities for preschoolers we did this week! I’m going to add some links to other Eric Carle FUN at the bottom of this post. We weren’t able to fit all of them into this preschool week, but they sure look like fun!

If you’re looking for more Eric Carle book-related activities, check out the links below:

Join the Fun with Eric Carle {The Educators’ Spin On It}
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Game {Stories and Children}
Seashell Crabs {Smile Play Learn}
Once Upon a Book — The Tiny Seed {Totally Tots}
Mister Seahorse art {The Usual Mayhem}
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Inspired Food Creations {Cute Food for Kids}
10 Little Rubber Ducks: Art, Counting, and Number Recognition {Adventures in Reading}
Caterpillar Fruit Stamps {Off the Shelf}
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Painted Rocks {Thrive 360 Living}
60+ Play-Based Ideas on The Very Hungry Caterpillar Book by Eric Carle {Powerful Mothering}
Eric Carle Birthday Party: RoundUP of Children’s Art {Rainbows Within Reach}

Feel free to stop by my Book-Inspired Activities Pinterest board for more ideas!

Shared with Doodle Bugs Teaching

Done-for-You Preschool Resources

Planning meaningful lessons for students week after week while balancing other teaching responsibilities and a personal life can be a daunting task. That’s where Preschool Teacher 101 comes in to save you time!

Preschool Teacher 101 has created some amazing preschool lesson and activity plans that will be perfect for your classroom. Click on the images below to learn more about some of our great resources!