The Very Hungry Caterpillar: Quick No Sew Costume
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(I originally published a version of this post on KidsActivitiesBlog.com).
With Miss K strapped and sitting on my hip, I ready myself to pick up Mr Two Year Old (E) from creche. As I negotiate myself around children, prams and parents I overhear the following conversation.
Mum 1: How are you?
Mum 2: Oh… a bit stressed.
Mum 1: Why? What’s happening?
Mum 2: It’s Book Week and we’re a bit stressed about our costumes for the Book Parade.
I breathe a mental sigh of relief. These two mums have kids in Primary School. My eldest twins are still in preschool. Phew! No need for me to worry about costumes for the Book Parade. I want to express my relief with these two mums, but Mr Two Year Old (E) spots me and makes a bee line for my knees. (He loves to tackle me right in the knees…. WHY?!)
Little did I know that preschools also celebrate Book Week with a Book Parade, where children are encouraged to come dressed in their favourite book character…. (WHY?!)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar: No Sew Costume
Okay, just to clarify things; I think it’s great that preschools celebrate book week and have book parades where children are encouraged to come dressed as their favourite book character.
I also think that no-sew costumes are awesome.
Here’s our fun no sew costume for lovers of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
Materials: craft foam (red, yellow, green, purple, purple); hot glue gun; elastic; scissors.
Method:
Cut out the various shapes for the mask. Green and yellow circles for eyes; purple antennas; and red semi-circle for the face.
(At first, we made the mask with a full red circle, as shown in our original post over at KidsActivitiesBlog.com. The full-face caterpillar mask looks more like the caterpillar from the book, but Mr N found it cumbersome and, in his own words “wanted to speak”. So, we promptly made it a half-mask with a semi-circle instead of a circle.)
Using the hot glue gun, join all the various pieces together. With super close supervision, I let Mr N and Mr M have a go with our low-temp hot glue gun. This was fantastic – here they were making their own costumes for the Book Parade! Now there’s a family tradition I’d like to keep up.
With all the pieces of the mask glued on and secure, make two small slits on the side of the mask. Thread some elastic through these holes and secure it so it fits well when the mask is worn.
Pair this no-sew hungry caterpillar face mask with a green top and green pants and you’ve got yourself a Very Hungry Caterpillar. No sewing required. So easy that kids can make it too. Awesome.
N & M: 4 years, 3 months
August 2012
About the author
Pauline LessonsLearntJournal; because #playmatters. On Lessons Learnt Journal you'll find activities for children, play, parenting, maths games, handwriting, reading and much more.
Pauline is a Christian, Wife, Mother of 4, Primary School Teacher. When not blogging, she may be found virtually hoarding on Pinterest, trying to decide which Instagram filter to apply, or compulsively refreshing her Facebook feed. Most days you'll find her chasing her kids and that much needed nap.
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Fantastic idea Pauline…i remember the panic of those days…and now i have it too look forward to again lol!
I have never learnt how to sew, so this is fantastic for me.
Book Week should be fun. I do find it sad that some parents find it stressful. Well done for taking the stress out of it.
I hope you\’ll link this up to The Children\’s Bookshelf.
Book week IS fun!
So glad to have a post to link up to the wonderful Children’s Bookshelf. xoxo P
I’m a little lucky that I can sew (a little). But it takes so much longer than a glue it costume. This is great!
No sew, simple and looks great!! What a cute idea Pauline – love it!
The Hungry Caterpillar is so cute to begin with so it wasn’t hard to make this cute too
xoxo P
This is so cute. I\’m going to have to do this with paper and craft sticks for storytime. Love it! My little guy is also a tackler. He\’s so big now, he almost knocks me over!
Hi Miss Courntey. Would love to hear how your paper and craft stick caterpillar works out for storytime. As for those little tacklers of ours… they just don’t know their own strength!
I can sew, but really appreciate the no-sew option! Looks great!!
Very cute. I love how easy it is! Thanks for linking this up to The Children\’s Bookshelf! You may also want to consider linking it up to the costume parade. It is getting quite a bit of traffic before Halloween. : ) http://www.notwiddletwaddle.com/2012/09/50-easy-no-sew-costumes-for-halloween.html
Thanks Bethany. Going over now to link up
Hope I’m not too late. xoxo P
So cute! I\’m featuring this on the Kid\’s Co-op this week! Thanks for linking up!
Thanks for the feature Terri
xoxo P
My 5 year old is in reception and all the infant classes in the school are named after the books of Eric Carle. I therefore felt I just HAD to make a Hungry Caterpillar costume. I bought green material and made the outfit, but I wanted a mask as well. This is perfect. Thank you so much.
Hi Jan,
How cute to have all the classes named after Eric Carle books. Brilliant! Hope your 5 year old enjoys his mask, and that it’s a super quick and easy job for you
.
xoxo P
It took me about 15 minutes to makeand she loves it. I have posted a pic on Facebook and Pinterest along with the rest of the costume. I will take another pic on Thursday with her wearing the complete outfit.
So glad to hear Jan! What are your Facebook/Pinterest details? Would love to see it. xoxo P
Pinterest is janisrd.
Facebook is Jan Dewsbery.
I’ve just visited you on Pinterest and it looks fabulous Jan! Thank you for sharing
xoxo P