Toilet Paper Roll Caterpillar

Earth Day has me thinking about the "waste" we produce ... which brought me to the idea of finding a toddler craft involving toilet paper tubes.  Take a second to think about that one ... hee, hee!

I found this one at http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts.

It's easy.  It's fun.  It uses some of those pesky toilet paper tubes that we seem to have so many of.

Great way for your toddler ...

• to practice color recognition / naming
• to practice fine motor skills - lacing the yarn through the holes
• to retell a story using a prop
• to talk about where a caterpillar lives, what one eats, etc.

DLTK's Crafts for Kids Toilet Paper Roll Caterpillar This is a simple three dimensional craft that is easy and fun for children to make and play with.   Older children can cut the toilet paper rolls in half for more "joints" in their caterpillar (this is what we did in our photo).  Younger children will want to leave the toilet paper rolls whole as it can be tough to cut them. Materials three or four toilet paper rolls (or a paper towel roll) construction paper scissors glue hole punch string, wool or ribbon    Optional:  wiggly eyes

Instructions:

• Optional:  Cut each toilet paper roll in half so you have twice as many, shorter tubes
• Glue a piece of construction paper to each tube.  You can use all one color or you can make a multi colored caterpillar (good colors practice).
• Punch a hole at the front and back (two holes) in all but two of the tubes. 
  
  • Those two will be the head and the tail. 
  • Punch just one hole in these two tubes
• Thread a piece of string or wool through the holes of each tube  (like you're sewing them together). 
  
  • Tie off the string at the head and tail.
  • Don't make the string too tight or your caterpillar won't wiggle.
• Decorate your caterpillar further with sticker polka dots, marker, paint, etc.

Antennas:

• Cut two thin strips of construction paper from yellow paper and curl around the end of a pencil
• Fold a small tab at the end of each and glue it onto the head (the front tube) 

Eyes:

• Glue on wiggly eyes or draw eyes on with a marker
• or cut eyes out of white construction paper and draw an eyeball in the middle of each with a black marker