Some paper cup puppets

We went to a local fun day and Jim the Maker was there again doing puppets. It was funny as the last time I saw him I was just starting off my blog with hardly any readers and no Facebook page. Made me realise how much the blog has developed especially when I go back and read the post!

Anyway this man is fantastic as he has loads of ideas we did a butterfly out of two paper cups this time which was great it has some wonderful connections to the hungry caterpillar. Little Boo loved doing this especially squashing the cups!

To make this you need

Two paper cups

They need to be stuck bottoms together then squashed.

cut the top of the cup to form antennae

After this cut into the cups to form wings

We then stuck stickers onto the butterfly to decorate it.

Add bamboo or a straw to the back of the butterfly to make it look like it is flying.

The instructions with images can also be found here

After doing this Jim showed us another really simple puppet using one paper cup. He discussed how the easy puppet is really helpful for developing fine motor skills as the child pinches the mouth part together. This was really simple to make as he just cut the cup from the top to the bottom.  The bottom section was shortened to make a chin. After this ring reinforcements were used as eyes and the top of the cup cut into to look like hair.  The image of this puppet it at the top of the post.

Shared on

Sharing a story- The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This story is wonderful it is one that I can remember as a child so therefore love reading it to Little Boo who to like myself always places her little fingers in the tiny holes. The book is wonderfully illustrated and incorporates learning days of the week, numbers, food names and all importantly the life cycle of a caterpillar, all in one book!  The book has 4.24 stars on Goodreads.  Here is how we shared the book.  A lot of the resources have been found through using the Internet I will be adding on the links (when I can find them as very helpfully I cut off the websites when making the resources)

This is our story sack nice and simple a pillow case with a coat hanger clipped on so it can be stored hung up in the wardrobe.  All that I used to get the image on the pillow case was a t-shirt transfer.

Little Boo was keen to see what was in there.

First of all a threading exercise whereby the green pipe cleaner is the Caterpillar and the fruit is threaded as he eats it.  This is brilliant for counting as me and Little Boo counted on the food for each day. This activity also encouraged Little Boo to look for different foods.

The caterpillar eating the apple.

One very greedy caterpillar!

Counting using pom poms.



Included in the story sack is also the days of the week printed out and there was (until it was returned to the library) a caterpillar life cycle book.  After reading the story I read through the days of the week and we talked about what usually happens on those days.

I hope that you like the activities the possibilities are endless with the Hungry Caterpillar and I feel that I will be adding more and more to my story sack as Little Boo develops.