Materials
red, yellow, blue, black, and white paint
white paper
cotton swabs or paintbrushes
Instructions
l Wrap a chenille stem around a marker to create a tight coil. Remove the
marker for a fat caterpillar manipulative. Wrap the chenille stem around a pen
for a skinny caterpillar manipulative. Make 30 or more colorful caterpillars.
l Place the caterpillars and leaves in the plastic bug catchers.
What to Do
1. Invite a child to open the bug catcher and remove a leaf.
2. The child spills out the caterpillars, places each caterpillar on the large felt leaf,
and identifies the color of each caterpillar.
3. Encourage the children to sort the caterpillars by color or line them up in a row
and count them.
4. Invite the children to move the caterpillars about the leaves as they work
and play.
S O N G
Invite the children to manipulate a caterpillar as they sing "Colorful Caterpillar."
Colorful Caterpillar by Mary J. Murray
(Tune: "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star")
Colorful caterpillar I like you. Crawl up a tree. And then crawl down.
Soft and fuzzy, friendly too. Colorful caterpillar I like you.
Crawl upon a leaf. Soft and fuzzy, friendly too.
Crawl all around.
Assessment
To assess the children's learning, consider the following:
l Can each child name the colors of all the caterpillars in the bug catcher?
(Display a caterpillar on a leaf and ask the child to name the color.)
