Monday, August 11, 2014

diy beaded caterpillars

The children had a blast creating these easy-peasy bead and pipe cleaner caterpillars. I was actually a little surprised at how much they enjoyed this activity. They were quite proud of their critters and a few of the children even decided to bring them to their rest mats.
The set up was really easy, the children chose their favorite colors of the day and sorted their beads into their small bowls (I do love that set of bowls). When they were all ready, they chose one color to be the head of their Very Hungry Caterpillar and threaded it onto their pipe cleaner enough to bend the top of the stem around their bead thus anchoring it in place. Vocabulary we used included, pipe cleaner, chenille stem, top, tip, anchor, thread, and bead both as a noun and a verb. We also took advantage of this activity to work on our patterning. Some of the children added beads then removed all of them and then began all over again.
Such an easy and simple activity that encourages fine motor practice and patterning. There was a lot of discussion at the table between the children so add socialization to the list as well as spatial recognition (how many beads is too many beads), color recognition, vocabulary, and counting! I am looking forward to presenting this activity next year to my soon-to-be new class!

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