Books
“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle
“How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?” by Jane Yolen
“Lunch” by Denise Fleming
I’ve been looking for an excuse to use this puppet from Discount School Supplies and I must say it was such a hit! The kids absolutely loved feeding the caterpillar and then watching him turn into a butterfly. This was also a great opportunity to talk about which foods we can eat a lot of and often and which ones we should save for a special treat!
Picked a Berry (Tune: Clementine)
Picked a blueberry, picked a blueberry (picking motion)
That was growing in the sun (circle arms above head)
Then I washed it and I ate it (pretend to eat)
And I picked another one
(repeat with other berries such as strawberries, blackberries, etc)
Source: Jbrary
Fruit Salad Salsa by Laurie Berkner Band (with egg shakers)
Five Fat Peas
Five fat peas (hold up 5 fingers)
In a peapod pressed (intertwine fingers)
1 grew, 2 grew and so did all the rest (raises fingers 1 by 1)
They grew and they grew and they didn’t stop (slowly bring hands apart)
They grew so fat that the peapod POPPED! (clap)
Five Ripe Berries
Five ripe berries sitting in a bowl (hold up 5 fingers)
The strawberry fell out and started to roll (roll arms)
It bumped the table (tap knee)
And hit my toe (tap toe)
how many berries in the bowl? (shrug)
Count down
(blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, cherry)
Fruit Kabobs
C is for Caterpillar Craft
Children glued pom-poms onto the caterpillar. We discussed how each pom-pom can represent a different healthy food that the caterpillar ate and tried to guess what some of the colors could be.
How it Went: Today’s storytime was all about fruits, vegetables and healthy eating. Summer is a great time to talk about nutrition because so many delicious fruits and veggies are in season. The Farmer’s Markets are just starting up and I thought this was a great way to celebrate! To encourage children to try some new fruits I made fruit kabobs with mango, strawberry, cantaloupe, melon, pineapple and watermelon. Most of the kids have never tried mango and really enjoyed it! I used straws instead of skewers.