Eric Carle Extravaganza

There are some great resources and preschool ideas at the Eric Carle website.  I put my own spin on one and came up with a really fun Thanksgiving activity for the preschoolers.


We had been reading Eric Carle books all month, looking at the pictures, and talking about what is the same and what is different between them.  I read a short biography about Eric Carle and a little bit about how he makes his illustrations.  I told them how Mr. Carle uses lots of layers of color to make his pictures. Then,  I had the kids rotate through stations doing different abstract Carle-inspired art.  The splatter painted on top of designs they drew with poster crayons (my favorite new crayons), stamped then painted on top, drew with markers, painted with paint markers and water painted on coffee filters.  The next day, we practiced cutting out circles from the papers we had painted the day before.  The next week we talked about being Thankful and what things we were thankful for. 

We read the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar and all decided that we were also thankful for healthy food and yummy food that we get to eat on Thanksgiving Day. 

We then took our circles, glued them in a row and added antennae, legs, eyes and hair to look like The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  We called ours The Very THANKFUL Caterpillar and I asked each child what they were thankful for and wrote their answers on the circle body parts of their own thankful caterpillar. 

I left some blank so they could keep writing some at home with their parents.  They turned out so darling!