Blogger / 6 May, 2026 / Nanny Anita

Hungry Caterpillar Sensory Tray

Every year I make a sort of plan of what sort of activities and crafts I am going to do throughout the year.  This normally means I make an extensive list and then totally ignore it.  However, one of the things on my list of potential ideas was a Hungry Caterpillar sensory tray.  It took a while to actually think of how I was going to do it, but I did finally get around to doing it.

Make sure you follow my sensory board on Pinterest for more ideas.  Don’t forget to save the pin for later.

To make your own Hungry Caterpillar sensory tray you will need:

• A caterpillar
• Air dry clay*
• Paint
• Sensory tray
• Pasta
• Giant Couscous
• Bowls/spoons

*I made my pieces of food from the air-dry clay and then painted them.  That does take a fair amount of time.  An alternative would be to use pretend food from a play kitchen.  Or you could print pictures of the food out from the internet and laminate them (to make them last longer).

For the sensory tray filler, I used a hoop pasta and giant couscous.  As a warning, please make sure that if you are using this with small children that you always supervise them.  This could be a potential chocking hazard nor is it taste safe.  I divided the hoop pasta up and then dyed it grey, yellow, and orange to represent the moon and the sun from the story.  As for the giant couscous I dyed that different shades of green.

Once all my food pieces were ready and the sensory filler was dry, I added them to my sensory tray with the Very Hungry Caterpillar book, bowls, and various scoops.

In my opinion it was a success, NC loved playing with it.  She is still at the age though where she is more interested in playing with the sensory tray filler than any sort of imaginative play that arises from it.  There were moments though when she did show interest in the caterpillar and the pieces of food and was pushing the caterpillar through the holes in the food.

If you enjoyed this Hungry Caterpillar sensory tray, be sure to check out my rainbow stacking stones, shaving foam and mirror play, and kinetic sand beach tray.

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