One of the things I’ve noticed since G has been in school is him wanting to do more arts and crafts when he’s at home. I knew I would need to encourage that trend to continue when he was home for the summer. Especially if we were going to end up staying indoors out of the miserable heat (and it’s already so miserable). With school winding down for the year, I started thinking of fun activities to keep G occupied.
When I was too little to remember, I made a clothespin caterpillar at some event our local rec center had. My mom kept it and we put it on the Christmas tree every year. If it weren’t in a box in our garage waiting for next Christmas, I’d take a picture of it for you. Anyway, I thought this would be a great craft for G to do at some point.
While we were shopping for supplies to make his teacher gifts, he spotted a bag of pom poms he wanted. I figured this would be a good time to try the caterpillar craft with him, so I had him choose a bag of googly eyes as well. I already had a bunch of clothespins from my Card Display craft and I knew I had some random pipe cleaner stashed in one of the closets. I love it when my craft hording comes in handy!
I think these clothespin caterpillars turn out so cute and they are so easy to make, which means this is a great preschool or rainy day activity for toddlers and young children.
Supplies
Clothes pins with the spring
pompoms
googly eyes
pipe cleaner
glue
(Amazon sells an assortment of the pom poms, eyes, and pipe cleaner in one little pack!)
First, you’re going to glue the pompoms to the clothes pin. I found it was a lot easier to put the glue on the pin first and then stick the pompoms on. Don’t be stingy with the glue. Pompoms are little suckers and don’t always stick. I found a decent amount of glue and holding the pompom in place for a moment seemed to keep it in place. I gave the pompoms a moment or two to set before I glued on the googly eyes. G had a great time putting the glue on the clothes pins and on the back of each googly eye.
I wanted to make sure the glue had dried completely before adding the pipe cleaner antennae. This didn’t make G too happy, but by that point L had woken up from his nap and we needed to clean up anyway.
When the glue had dried, I cut each pipe cleaner in half. Then I twisted it around the clothes pin to make the antennae.
We had so many I ended up giving one to G’s teachers as part of their end of year present. I don’t know what I’ll do with all of them, but I know I’ll keep a couple for our Christmas tree!
Okay, I am NOT a Pinterest-y mother, but I’m definitely trying these. THanks for the idea!
I’d love to see a picture when you do! I didn’t mind doing this craft with G because of how easy it is 🙂
What an adorable crafting idea. I love that you can do this with the kids! Thank you for sharing at Pin Worthy Wednesday!
Aaahhh!!! Super cute!!
My son would love to make these! Thanks for the easy and fun idea!
How fun! Babysitting this weekend and will be doing this!
What a sweet idea 🙂 my Nephews would totally love this. xx
My boys loved it! They’re always asking when we’re going to make more 🙂
Oh these are adorable! I am always looking for cute & easy crafts to do with my little one that doesn’t require a huge trip to the dollar store! Thanks for the idea!
This is such a cute idea for the little ones! I’ll be trying this craft with my 2 year old!