This Very Hungry Caterpillar Sensory Squish Bag is a brilliant sensory activity for toddlers and preschoolers all based on our favourite Eric Carle book – The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
This is one of those simple activities that you can put together with things you have at home in less than five minutes and you do not need to be an artist at all. Little hands will love the texture and moving the pompoms around in the bag.
How to Make Your Very Hungry Caterpillar Sensory Squish Bag
Supplies:
- (2) 8 oz Aloe Vera Gel, Hair Gel or you can use any hand sanitiser you might still have.
- Multicolored pom poms
- Jar lid (or anything that is circle-shaped and can be traced)
- Circle shape object smaller than the canning top (for the caterpillar head)
- Black Sharpie
- Multicoloured Sharpies (or permanent markers) to correlate with the pom pom colors
- Large Zip-lock bag
- Packaging tape
- Alcohol swabs (or alcohol and cotton balls)
- White cardstock
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Directions:
- Gather all the supplies.
- Take the alcohol swab and erase the writing and lines on your ziplock bag.
- With a black Sharpie or permanent marker trace the caterpillar’s head and create its face on to the top of the ziplock bag.
- Use the multicoloured Sharpies that correlate with the coloured pom poms. Trace a circle for each colour.
- Add 16 oz of aloe vera gel to the ziplock bag. Alternatively, hair gel is really great and inexpensive to use or use hand sanitiser and add a few drops of food colouring.
- Add coloured pom poms.
- Push all the air out of the plastic baggie. Seal the baggie and add a piece of cardstock behind the bag. Use packaging tape to double seal the bag and secure the cardstock in place.
Sensory Squish bags are great for kids fine motor skills, they fulfil sensory needs and help children maintain their focus and attention. They are great for home as they are mess-free sensory play that can be made quickly and inexpensively boosting imaginative play. I love them as they are self-contained and no mess and perfect for creative play.
How to Use this Sensory Squish Bag
Depending on the age of your child, you can use this sensory squish bag in many different ways.
- You can ask them to place the coloured pom poms into the matching circles.
- You can count the pom poms.
- You can ask what fruits are those colours in the book – apples, strawberries, oranges, plums, pears and so on.
Why we love the Hungry Caterpillar
- It is a great book to read with children and great for boosting EYFS children’s literacy skills as the simple language, rhythm and repetitive nature encourage children to join in.
- It also teaches about days of the week and counting.
- The book introduces the concept of a caterpillar’s life cycle making it perfect for exploring the concepts of natural processes and life cycles in a very basic sense.
- It covers transformation and growth as it follows a caterpillar’s change into a butterfly.
Check out Maxi’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday party which has lots of other caterpillar activities.
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