our Story Time pick for May 2026: the very hungry caterpillar!
- 3 hours ago
- 10 min read
Monday, May 18, 2026
As another school year winds down
and the rhythms of spring begin giving way to summer adventures,
we’re wrapping up this year’s series,
Our Monthly Story Time with the Littles!
Over the past nine months,
each story we’ve selected has welcomed us into
moments of wonder, laughter, and imagination.
Along the way, we’ve also offered various strategies to support young readers
and we’ve shared playful ideas for bringing every story to life!
Today, for our final story time of this school year,
it feels only fitting to celebrate a tale that beautifully reflects
growth, change, and new beginnings!
Since the beginning of this school year,
we’ve shared a book each month that we simply love and love sharing!
Along the way, we’ve also offered various reading strategies
ones that could successfully and easily be adapted to use with your own Littles.!
Each month, we also shared playful activities that brought every story to life!
You can find our past stories and ideas by clicking the following links:
Back to School – The Kissing Hand
September – Ten Apples Up on Top
October – Go Away, Big Green Monster
November – Turkey Trouble
December – The Gingerbread Man
January – Sneezy the Snowman
February – Goldilocks and the Three Bears
April – Worm Weather
Are you ready for story #10?
It’s the last one for this school year!
This month’s pick is one we both shared each year with our kindergarten students
and it’s one our own Littles adore
(first our own children and, these days, our grandkids).
Are you familiar with this well known children’s classic?
written and illustrated by Eric Carle
In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.
One Sunday morning the warm sun came up and—pop!—
out of the egg came a tiny and very hungry caterpillar!
As Amazon describes, "so begins the journey of Eric Carle’s beloved storybook character. Follow along as one of nature’s loveliest marvels eats his way through an amazing variety of foods as he prepares to transform into a beautiful butterfly! Children will love the strikingly bold, colorful pictures, set against a simple text in large, clear type."
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a fantastic book for young children because it perfectly blends simple storytelling with meaningful early learning in a way that feels playful and engaging!
The book captures the attention of young listeners
for several key reasons:
This story also holds a gentle life lesson or two
for us all to take in!
If you don’t have access to the actual book
(which is always our preference, of course)
you can still introduce your Little(s) to this delightful story and enjoy it together!
We’ve included a link to the Youtube version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar below:
And, as an added BONUS, here’s our favorite online version of the story!
This is the version we watch after we’ve read the story several times!
It’s told to music with no written words included!
The Power Found in Retelling a Story!
Learning to retell a story is a foundational literacy skill for beginning readers because it transforms passive listening into active comprehension! When children retell a story in their own words, they practice putting events in order, begin to understand how stories unfold, and build new vocabulary — all important skills that help support long-term reading success.
As mentioned, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is an excellent book for teaching sequencing because it uses concrete, easily recognizable patterns - specifically, the days of the week and a rising numerical count. This predictable structure naturally allows Littles to anticipate what happens next, building their own storytelling skills!
In addition to this delightful book,
Eric Carle has written and illustrated several other books
that tell a story from an insect’s point of view!
Here’s a few of our favorites!
(this book tells the story of a little spider as she spins her web!)
(a quiet cricket makes his way into the world and meets new friends!)
(readers follow the Grouchy Ladybug on her journey!)
(a firefly finds the friends he is seeking in this search for belonging)
(the little click beetle just can’t get the hang of things… or can he?)
After reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar,
(undoubtedly, you’ll do this MANY times with your Littles)
we’ve got lots of fun ways to continue with the fun!
Laura is sharing some of her favorite ideas below!
This beloved story naturally lends itself to hands-on activities, playful learning, and creative fun that help Littles of all ages continue exploring the caterpillar’s world!. From retelling to counting games and a delicious snack to caterpillar crafts, these simple activities invite children to engage with the story in meaningful ways!
Retelling the Story!
As we've already stated, this book has been read on repeat over the years!
Four-year-old Little L knows this story very well
so, during a recent visit,
I wanted to create a tool to help her retell it in her own words!
I downloaded this free sequencing printable from School Time Snippets and it worked perfectly. You can find all the details for this project at their site.
To begin, once I'd downloaded the document, I made a color copy of it on cardstock - you can use regular copy paper but using cardstock will make the pieces more durable. I carefully cut out the caterpillar head (going around the antennae) and the twelve smaller circles. Then I glued each of the smaller circles to a clothespin.
I found a long piece of cardboard and cut a strip from it - approximately 1”-2” wide by 15” long. If you have a paint stick available, that would work well, too. Glue the caterpillar head to one end of your strip/stick. You can see from the photo below, how the pieces work together to tell the story of the hungry caterpillar!
Because Little L knew the story so well, she was able to put the clothespins in order rather quickly.
Then it was time to retell the story!
This retired kindergarten teacher was smiling ear to ear,
listening to this sweet Little retell the story… and with such expression, too!
Oh my heart be still!
Build a Caterpillar!
This dice game was so easy to set up and super fun!
To set up this game, you’ll need white paper, a black marker or crayon, a set of playing cards or one die and colored markers or stickers. We love these dot markers which are similar to Bingo markers you might find at your local dollar store. But don’t worry - you don’t need these special markers to have fun with this activity. We’ll provide alternative ideas below!
To begin, I used a black marker to draw a caterpillar face on one side of the piece of paper and then made a squiggly line for its body.
Little L drew a card, chose a color to use, and made the matching number of dots next to each other on the caterpillar’s body, beginning next to its face. She repeated this step over and over again, choosing a new color with each card she drew.
Instead of playing cards, you can roll a dice for each turn and instead of Bingo or dot markers or colored stickers, you can use your black marker/crayon to draw the number of circles drawn and then your Little can color those circles in!
It’s also fun to turn this activity into a Caterpillar Race
where two players compete to see who can fill their caterpillar
with the least number of rolls!
A Caterpillar Garden!
A few years ago, Little L and I
planted our Caterpillar Garden, full of herb seeds!
SURPRISE!
We planted our seeds in eggshells!
To begin, we broke the eggs near one end and poured the yolk and egg whites from each into a storage container to be saved and used at another time. Then we placed the empty egg shells into one side of an empty egg carton. We drew three legs under each egg on the egg carton, as shown below.!
We then added two googly eyes to the first egg shell - we had self adhesives ones or you can glue them on (or you can always draw two eyes onto the egg shell, as well, using a permanent marker.) We also curled up two small pieces of a pipe cleaner and glued those to the inside of the first shell (for the caterpillar’s antennae).
Now that you’ve prepped the caterpillar, fill each egg shell ⅔ full with soil. If the soil is very dry, spray some water in each egg shell to moisten the soil.
Plant one kind of seed in each egg shell - we used parsley, oregano, rosemary and cilantro (we planted parsley and cilantro in two egg shells, each). Little L planted about 6-10 seeds in each shell! We had fun noticing how some seeds were big while others were tiny!
Use a spray bottle to water each egg carton of seeds! Place your caterpillar garden in a sunny spot - a window sill works well! Now it’s time to practice patience!
After a week or so, your plants will begin to sprout and, within a few weeks, your Little will love how the garden is growing!
A Few More Caterpillar Creations!
We’ve got a few more SIMPLE ideas up our sleeves.
Pick and choose any that work for you and your Littles!
🍎 A Caterpillar Crown!
Older Littles will be able to make their own crowns if you provide the needed materials. You’ll just ned to help them adjust the size of the crown to their heads!
Begin by cutting out strips of green construction paper and then measuring out the needed length to fit around your Little’s head. Tape or staple the ends together. Then decorate as you’d like, adding eyes and antennae! How cute does our Little look as The Hungry Caterpillar?!?
🍎 Feed the Caterpillar… 2 Ways!
Version #1 - To make our giant caterpillar head, I glued a large red construction paper circle to the front of a brown paper bag. I then cut a hole through the red paper and the bag to make the caterpillar’s mouth. Finally, I added eyes and antennae to look like The Hungry Caterpillar!
I brought my well-loved bag of pom poms with me. At first, my Littles just had fun putting the pom poms in the caterpillars mouth to feed it! Later, after they’d had fun playing, we retold the story and added the color/number of pom poms for each part of the story! (i.e. 1 red pom pom/apple, 2 green pom poms/pears, 3 purple pom poms/plums and so on.)
Version #2 - We decorated empty toilet paper tubes to look like a caterpillar and then Little L (4-years-old) rolled a die and added that many pom poms (otherwise known as the caterpillar’s food) to the tube. Meanwhile 2-year-old Little P simply had fun stuffing her caterpillar with pom poms!
🍎 C is for Caterpillar!
This was one of the first craft projects I ever did with Little L! I cut a “C” shape out of a paper plate and added a round red face at one end. We used a glue stick (I helped Little L as a toddler) to make a line of glue about 4 inches long and then she added pom poms to the glue. When she had covered the area we had glued, we added to the line of glue and she continued to add pom poms. We did this 2-3 times until the entire “C” had been turned into a caterpillar!
🍎 Paper Chain Caterpillar!
This was our favorite of the projects we did together and older Littles, with a bit of guidance could do this with minimal help! You’ll need strips of green construction paper to make the paper chain. Make your caterpillar as short or as long as you’d like. Then use other colors of construction paper to add more details to your caterpillar.
🍎 An Edible Caterpillar!
Last summer, we made these caterpillars for lunch and they were a treat to make and a treat to eat!
I had looked in the pantry and the fridge and found some tortillas, deli turkey, Boursin cheese spread, a Babybell cheese round and parmesan as well as some “extras” - carrots, arugula, black olives, a yellow pepper and strawberries. I had everything we’d need!
Some of my fixin’s!
I spread the Boursin cheese on the wrap and then layered turkey slices on top as well as some shredded Parmesan. We rolled up the tortillas and cut them into rounds. You can see from the photos above and below how we placed the rounds on the plate for the caterpillar’s body, added the Babybel cheese round for the head, an olive eye and carrot antennae, too.
For our final touches we added some lettuce for the grass, more carrot sticks for the caterpillar’s legs and then grapes, olives and strawberries for the flowers! Finally we cut up the yellow pepper and turned it into a sun!
Little L and I had such fun creating this lunch!
And, one final giggle for today!
Are you familiar with this month’s story?
Do your Littles love it as much as ours do?
If so, we’d love to hear more…
Feel free to comment at the end of this post!
THANK YOU!
We’ll be back later this week with a new post…
one of us is celebrating having an almost kindergartener in our midst!
Exciting times!
Don’t forget that you can always find us
We’d love it if you stopped by to check out our latest posts!
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(We only contact you via email when we publish a new post!)
This past school year,
we’ve had such fun sharing a few of our favorite children’s books with all of you! We’re already looking forward to continuing this series again next fall because
— probably to no one’s surprise —
we still have LOTS more treasured stories we can’t wait to explore!
In the meantime,
we’ll leave you with this quote to ponder…
It’s a good one!
At its heart, this quote reminds us that small moments of gentleness teach children kindness, compassion, and respect for the world around them. By learning to care for even the tiniest creatures, children begin to understand that their actions matter and that all living things have value. Isn’t that GRAND?
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