The Very Hungry Caterpillar Color Sorting Activity: This is a quick and simple toddler activity that is a super fun way to celebrate the 45th Anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of those books that all of my kids have loved to tatters since the day they were introduced to Eric Carle’s world of color. There is just something about his books that invites readers to get lost between the pages.

Being that Meatball is just starting to pique interest in sorting and matching and that Eric Carle is well known for his vibrant illustrations, we decided that the best way to kick off our Caterpillar learning would be through a fun and colorful activity!

Items Needed for The Very Hungry Caterpillar Color Sorting:

Colored Paper Scraps and/or Paint Chips
Colored Buttons
Construction Paper
Scissors
Optional: Other Collage Items and Glue

How To Play:

Set up for this activity is super simple. In a serving tray set out your collage items. Being that we are just starting into color sorting I presented the items already sorted to Meatball, for older kids up the challenge and mix up your tray and/or provide scissors for them to do their own cutting!

Then in the colors of the rainbow I cut out circles (one for each segment of the caterpillar) and glued them on to a large white sheet of construction paper.

Nothing very fancy, but Meatball immediately associated with the caterpillar from The Very Hungry Caterpillar and jumped in to explore and put it together.

We did try to glue {and some items survived it} but the buttons that we chose were a tad too heavy, so we adapted and settled for just placing our items on the corresponding color.

As there were multiple size buttons this presented a fun opportunity to also work on some size sorting.

We also explored the different textures of the buttons {rough v. smooth} and shapes {we had a couple various shapes from an older batch of buttons}.

We ended the activity by grabbing a large black marker and drawing {read scribble all over the place} eyes and antennas to our caterpillars. Since our glue wasn’t strong enough to hold on to the buttons we did not get to hang up our masterpieces, but Meatball loved this activity and was super proud {and just as satisfied} to have it sit on the table on display!

This activity is recommended with exploring The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle book and The Very Hungry Caterpillar app for Kids!