Easy Kids Egg Carton Craft | Caterpillar Craft

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So my 6 year old has been off from (virtual) school for the holidays and my toddler is totting about the house looking for trouble… and I’m sitting there thinking to myself how in the world am I going to keep them both entertained?

My answer: EASY KIDS CRAFTS. My girls love doing arts and crafts activities and it keeps them from getting in each other’s face. I actually find it relaxing to spend the morning doing this stuff with them (as long as they both sit in their respective chairs without making eye contact with each other and fighting about who gets which art supply!)

Here are my rules for doing crafts with my kids:

It should be simple and easy enough for the kids to do without too much help from me. Also, it should ideally utilize items lying around the house so I don’t need to spend a ton of money buying expensive crafts stuff. Recycled crafts are the best!

So today we spent the morning making this cute caterpillar using household items we had lying around.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 An egg carton

2 Black marker

3 Scissors

4 Glue

5 Paint (I love these washable Crayola paints, perfect for doing crafts with kids who will inevitably get the paint everywhere!)

6 Googly eyes

7 Pipe cleaners

How to make a recycled egg carton caterpillar

Start off by cutting one strip of the egg carton like so:

(Side note: my toddler was already getting quite fidgety at this stage and trying to yank the scissors out of her sister’s hands. So I put her in her feeding chair and gave her the spare egg carton piece along with some markers so she could stay busy. It worked!)

Then let your kids paint the caterpillar whatever color they like. My daughter was adamant that it should not be a ‘boring’ green caterpillar but should be colorful.

Next glue on the googley eyes and using a black marker make a smiley face. To make antena, take  a pipe cleaner and cut it into two equal parts. Curl the ends and then stick them on the caterpillar’s head.

Lastly, take any colored pipe cleaner and cut out 8 two inch pieces. Slightly bend them outwards so they look like legs. Stick those 8 pieces using glue to the sides of the caterpillar.

You should end up with something that looks like this:

My kids were so ecstatic with their creation. They’ve even given her a name (I think it was Caty if I’m not mistaken). Anyway now they want to have a Zoo full of egg carton animals….so let’s see what we end up making tomorrow!

Happy caterpillar making.