Children love watching the caterpillar grow and transform from a tiny egg to a colorful butterfly in The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle. This book teaches little ones not only a bit about the life of a butterfly, but also counting and the days of the week! When making Caterpillar Fruit Salad, the fun is all about counting the fruits and comparing them to the fruit in the book! Even if I use the can of oranges to save a little time, I always try to have the 5 oranges on hand just for counting! If you have an extra apple or two leftover, make an apple print caterpillar!

Apple Print Caterpillar!

You will need:

1 or 2 apples cut in half across the middle

Washable paint

Paper

Crayons or markers

Pour out a little paint onto plates or shallow bowls. Dip the apples into the paint to make apple stamps across your paper and create a caterpillar. When the paint has dried, use your crayons or markers to make a face, little feet and antennas! If you’d like, you can also make an apple print butterfly! Draw a long thin body on a piece of paper and using the apples, stamp each side of the body to make beautiful wings!

Caterpillar Fruit Salad

Serves 6-8

1 apple

2 pears

3 plums

4 strawberries

5 oranges (or 1 can of mandarin oranges)

Juice from ½ of a lemon

1 cup of plant based yogurt

With a small paring knife and a cutting board, remove the core and seeds from the apple, pears and plums. Cut them into bite size pieces and add them to a large mixing bowl. Remove the stems from the strawberries, chop them up and add them to the bowl as well. Squeeze the juice from ½ of a lemon onto the fruit to keep the colors bright and fresh! You can peel, separate and seed the 5 oranges and stir them into the fruit or instead just drain a can of mandarin oranges and toss them in the mix. Combine all the fruit together with the yogurt.