The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

  • Home
  • Welcome
    • About Me
    • Popular Posts
    • Play Challenge
    • Subscribe
  • Age
    • Baby
    • Toddler
    • Preschooler
    • School Age
  • Activities
    • Literacy
    • Numeracy
    • Creativity
    • Physical
    • PHSE
    • Science
  • Resources
    • Spaces
    • Toys
    • Books
  • Contact
  • Kindness Elves

The Hungry Caterpillar Play Dough Story-telling

August 25, 2012 by Anna Ranson

We’ve combined two of our favourite things, play dough and stories, to come up with a fun new way to re-tell our favourite picture books! Using coloured, no-cook play dough, wooden food, a butterfly toy and a well-worn copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the girls retold the story in an exciting, active way from memory!
Early literacy skills are fundamentally built upon a knowledge of rhyme and stories. The more stories young children hear, the better their understanding of language and literacy and the greater their ability to read and write with comprehension as they get older. You can read about the theory of reading the same stories repeatedly until children can memorise them and retell independently in this original post about our 5 a Day Books scheme.

 We made some of our easy no-cook play dough in red, green and yellow for creating the caterpillar with. Then we collected some wooden play food using the book as a guide to help us find what we needed. We had most of the items that the caterpillar eats through in the story, but not all, so the girls had to problem solve the missing ones!

I laid it all out on the table as an invitation to play, and Cakie started to make a caterpillar model immediately, copying carefully from pictures in the book. I love how she rolled thin strips of yellow to create the outlines of the eyes- something I wouldn’t have thought of at all!
Pop was inspired by her big sister (always the way at the moment!) and started to make her own caterpillar too. I absolutely love the developmental contrast between the two finished pieces! This is why open-ended play and creative prompts are so important and appropriate at this stage. If we had been doing a fixed outcome craft instead we would have ended up with 2 identical products and absolutely no suggestion of age, developmental stage or creativity!

 They then used the food and butterfly toy to retell the story, turning the pages and matching up items as they did so. C noticed that we didn’t have some of the food and she set about making it from play dough instead. She made wonderful representations of the sausage and cherry pie! Pop also played along, using some of the key elements of the story that she could remember, with the main features in the correct order. Fantastic early literacy skill practise and emergent reading just beginning!

Here are some other creative ways to re-tell stories:

Gruffalo Play Dough story telling

Little Red Riding Hood Story box

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears Dramatic play

Learning links:

literacy: story-telling, recount, key elements of stories, emergent reading

Cakie: 3.11
Pop: 2.5
Bean: 6 months

What story would YOU choose to retell with play dough?!

Related Posts

  • Play Dough Letter Impressions
  • Phonics Ball GamesPhonics Ball Games
  • Building Blocks Name GameBuilding Blocks Name Game
  • Room on the Broom Story BasketRoom on the Broom Story Basket
  • Autumn Tree Leaves Name LearningAutumn Tree Leaves Name Learning
  • Owl Babies Story SpoonsOwl Babies Story Spoons

Filed Under: Caterpillar, Eric Carle, Literacy, Playdough, Stories, Story Props, Story Telling Tagged With: Early Literacy, Play Dough, Playful Literacy

« Baby Sensory Play: Water
Grinding Coffee Beans »

Comments

  1. Caz says

    August 25, 2012 at 10:24 am

    Love this, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a constant favourite at our house. Thank you for the great playdough recipe too, will be trying that out tomorrow!

  2. Cerys @ Rainy Day Mum says

    August 25, 2012 at 10:31 am

    Fantastic (and you have made my day as J’s playdough models look like Pop’s as well so at just 3 I’m guessing I’m going to see lots of changes this year :))

  3. entertainingmonsters says

    August 25, 2012 at 11:22 am

    Love it. I’m always so impressed by your imagination and creativity. And to do all this with a young baby to care for too is just amazing.

  4. Natasha SerenityYou says

    August 25, 2012 at 1:36 pm

    so sweet!

  5. Tutus & Tea Parties says

    August 25, 2012 at 2:39 pm

    This is super cute! My daughter is loving playdough lately and to add books, well this might make her love it even more! I’d love for you to come share this at our Pinteresting Party!

  6. Vicky says

    August 25, 2012 at 7:00 pm

    I am really impressed with their work! I so agree with the open ended activity concept. Te results speak for themselves. Just pinned this. Vicky from http://www.messforless.net

  7. Turkey Mom says

    August 26, 2012 at 6:44 am

    This is great! Especially the 2 very different creations by your girls. We just retold Thumbelina using play dough a couple of days ago. I also linked-up to your Little Red Riding Hood story box post.

  8. Kirsty @ Bowerbird Blue says

    August 26, 2012 at 1:54 pm

    Just read this book yesterday, or rather was read to, as the children know all the words, such a classic. Would be fun to see a menagerie of Wild Things!

  9. RedTedArt says

    August 27, 2012 at 9:50 pm

    VERY impressed with those caterpillars!

  10. Catherine Collins says

    August 30, 2012 at 5:06 am

    We love this book!! Love the 2 caterpillars made by your girls. (Momma’s Fun World)

  11. despina hatzi says

    January 11, 2013 at 3:53 pm

    We also love the book and thank you soooooooooooo much for the wonderful idea!! very impressed with the two caterpillars!!! congratulationsssssssssssss

  12. The Toadstool says

    February 18, 2013 at 7:04 pm

    So beautiful! Love the caterpillars made by the girls as well! We got a book in Dutch about a monkey and a donkey in a heated debate on something they found, they try it as a had, they wonder if you can sit on it, if it is for swimming etc etc… it turns out it is made to read: it is a book. But that would be great with dough as they learn all sorts of up/under words and visualize them as well as activities.

  13. Karyn Tripp says

    March 19, 2013 at 8:41 pm

    I love this so much! I am doing a hungry caterpillar round up & will be featuring your idea there.
    teachbesideme.com

The Imagination Tree on FacebookThe Imagination Tree on TwitterThe Imagination Tree on PinterestThe Imagination Tree on G+RSS feed from The Imagination TreeThe Imagination Tree straight to your inbox

Search The Imagination Tree

About The Imagination Tree Hello and welcome! I'm Anna, Mama of 4, early years teacher and play enthusiast from the UK! Click here to read more about me.

The Kindness Elves Store
Play Ideas on The Imagination Tree

Create with The Imagination Tree

Makes on The Imagination Tree

Sign up for our FREE emails:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Categories

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT