Maker Monday: Create this adorable caterpillar and butterfly

This week’s Maker Monday project, Caterpillar & Company, finds inspiration in a favorite children’s book, Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” It was shared with Kidsburgh by Sara Osborn, a kindergarten teacher at Avonworth Primary Center.

Kids can make a caterpillar with simple supplies like an empty egg carton and paint. Once they create their caterpillar, they can continue this S.T.E.A.M. project — science, technology, engineering, art, and math — by making the complete life cycle of the butterfly, from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis.

A note to kid makers: Please work with a parent or caregiver on this Maker Monday project and always be very careful when using tools of any kind.

Maker Monday materials you’ll need for your caterpillar:

• an empty egg carton, cut in half length-wise
• green acrylic paint
• red acrylic paint
• yellow acrylic paint
• a brass fastener
• scissors
• a paint brush

Step 1: Paint the first section of the egg carton red. That will be your caterpillar’s head. Then paint the remaining sections green. Once the red paint on the head is dry, dip your thumb into the yellow paint to make two eyes on the head. Then dip your pinky finger into the green paint to make two green dots inside the yellow eyes.

Let that dry, then ask an adult to help push the brass fastener through the top of the head from underneath, so the legs of the fastener are sticking straight up. Pull the legs of the brass fastener apart and adjust to make the antennae.

Maker Monday materials you’ll need for the other stages of the Life Cycle of the Butterfly:

• small piece of green felt
• a white bead
• cardboard tube (from toilet paper or paper towel)
• black or brown paint
• a piece of ribbon
• a coffee filter
• washable markers
• a clothespin
• a pipe cleaner

For the egg: Cut a green piece of felt into a leaf shape, then glue a white bead onto it.

For the chrysalis: Paint a toilet paper (or part of an empty paper towel roll) brown and black. Once it’s dry, poke two holes in the top and tie a ribbon onto it, so your chrysalis could “hang” on a branch.

For the butterfly: Use washable markers to decorate a white coffee filter. Then spray the colored coffee filter with water and watch the colors spread out. Let it dry, then clip the center with a clothespin. Last step: Twist a pipe cleaner around the clothespin to create the antennae.