Anytime learning activities can include movement and play they tend to be a hit in our house. This caterpillar name activity combines the fun of a scavenger hunt with learning name recognition and even a little bit of pretend play.
You’ll need an egg carton, plastic eggs, chenille stems, googly eyes, a permanent marker, scissors, and a hot glue gun. Start by preparing the caterpillar ahead of time by cutting one long section that includes a cup for each letter of the child’s name. You may need to glue on extra sections if a child’s name is long. Attach facial features to one single egg cup. Then glue it to one end of the caterpillar. Attach legs on the bottom section of the strip of egg cups.
Label the eggs with the letters in the child’s name (or you could use numbers or sight words, depending on what your child is working on).
Then let the fun and learning begin. My girls love scavenger hunts, so I chose to hide the eggs around the room before inviting Tinker to play. She found the eggs and spelled her name…and then we did it over and over again at her request. This is a great but subtle way to get kids practice name recognition that doesn’t feel like “work.”
And once Tinker was done she took her name caterpillar on a little adventure around the house.
You could also extend this activity by including magnetic letters inside the eggs so the child could spell his or her name in a different way. Continue the caterpillar theme fun with our color matching fine motor activity or our caterpillar egg counting activity.
More Name Activities
5 Easy Preschool Name Activities
5 More Easy Preschool Name Activities
Get a Full Week of Caterpillar and Butterfly Theme Learning and Play
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
1) Butterfly Life Cycle Roll and Graph Game
2) Butterfly Life Cycle Roll and Graph Game
3) Caterpillar Uppercase Alphabet Cards
4) Butterfly Lowercase Alphabet Cards
5) Butterfly Life Cycle Cards
6) Butterfly Symmetry Matching Cards
7) Butterfly Life Cycle Word Building Mats
8) Caterpillar Measurement Recording Sheet
9) Caterpillar Patterning Activity
10) Caterpillar Syllable Sort
11) Caterpillar Egg Leaf Counting Mats (Numbers 1-10)
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