Handprint Caterpillar

(Art)

I saw several versions of these handprint caterpillar on Pinterest. I pieced together ideas from different tutorials to find which work best for our 2 years 7 months old Y and this is what we came up with.

Materials:

-3 homemade paints: red, green, blue colors

-black oil pastel

-paper with color of your toddler’s choice

-a tray (optional, to contain messiness)

We began by reading Eric Carle's classic children's book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar with Y. Once we were done, we created our own Very Hungry Caterpillar using just handprints.

The best way to make handprints is to paint the palms of her hands and then press her handprints onto the paper. For the caterpillar's body, I painted her palm green and her fingers blue (to make up caterpillar’s legs). We made three handprints in a row for the body. We painted in a red head and let all paints dried overnight.

I let Y to play freely with the paints with full access to any paper she wished to use. She decided to paint her own hands and feet til no more paints left in the container. Is it body scrub time?

The next day, we used black oil pastel to make two antennae and eyes. I also gave Y freedom to use the oil pastel and unlimited papers which she used wisely to draw doodles.

So that was our caterpillar story

#caterpillar #handprint #toddler