35 Free Toddler Activities for Eric Carle Books

Eric Carle is one of our favorite children’s book authors. I have saved all of our books in hopes to pass them down to my grandchildren one day. These books are especially great for toddlers. Check out these 35 Free toddler activities for Eric Carle books. 

If you have a little one, there is a huge chance you have one or more of Eric Carle’s books on your homeschool bookshelf. You might be wondering “What age are Eric Carle books for?” I think they are perfect for babies all the way through age 5 or 6.

One of Eric Carle’s first books is one you are probably very familiar with, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, however the very first book published he had published was 1,2,3 to the Zoo.

What is Eric Carle’s most famous book?

While my favorite Eric Carle book has always been The Tiny Seed, my daughter always loved The Mixed Up Chameleon, even though these are our favorite books from Carle’s works, his most-loved book of all-time has been The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

I have some of the best memories reading the Eric Carle books out loud to my babies. By the time they could talk, many of them had the Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? books completely memorized. My daughter would yell out the name of the animals before I could even turn the page!

If you have multiple children you know how difficult it can be to balance homeschooling different ages. It is hard to work one-on-one with the older children when you have toddlers. Little ones almost always want to “do school” like their older siblings.

We don’t normally do formal schooling in the preschool years. However, I do enjoy incorporating fun, educational activities, especially if they are related to books. So, if you’re looking for free printable Eric Carle coloring pages, writing activities, or lesson plans, you’ve come to the right place.

If you are an Eric Carle fan like we are, you will appreciate this list of different activities that are geared towards preschoolers and toddlers. They accompany some of our favorite Eric Carle Books.

35 Free Toddler Activities for Eric Carle Books:

There are so many different Eric Carle teaching resources! I have gathered up book activities, preschool worksheets, and other free downloads that accompany the many different books he has written that you will love!

Toddler Activities and Printables for The Mixed Up Chameleon

Exploring the Mixed Up Chameleon with Eric Carle – Three great activities for your young ones, based off of the book The Mixed Up Chameleon by Eric Carle. Sort your own mixed-up alphabet into the correct ABC order. Learn color sorting by matching the different colored chameleons to the same colored things in your home. The final activity offers a free coloring page printable for your toddler to color and describe what their chameleon looks like.

 Chameleon Paint Mixing Activity – Enjoy this easy, mess-free activity for your kids! Draw a chameleon on a Ziplock bag and squirt a couple drops of paint into the bag. Let your kid mix the paint colors around inside the Ziplock bag to make a pretty suncatcher. 

Fine Motor and Math Game for The Mixed Up Chameleon – Check out this link for a fun learning game for your kids. Great for practicing counting and tuning their fine motor skills as they “feed the chameleon flies”.

The Mixed Up Chameleon Mixed Up Painting Activity – Kids will love this fun painting activity for The Mixed Up Chameleon book. Give your kids washable paint and paint brushes to decorate a toy chameleon. This is great for teaching them how mixing colors creates new ones. After they’re all done and you’ve admired the pretty new colors, wash the paint off the chameleon so you can do it again.

Chameleon Paint Craft – Click on this link for a free printable chameleon craft page and instructions to follow. Kids will love decorating their own chameleon to proudly hang up on the fridge or the wall. 

The Grouchy Ladybug Printables

The Grouchy Ladybug Felt Board Fun Puppets – This link has multiple free choices for printable activities for your kids to do at home. You can use the sheets as felt board characters or puppets, get creative with these ideas!

Handprint Craft for the Grouchy Ladybug – This is such a fun handprint painting craft for kids of all ages. Have kids make a fist and dip it into paint and onto a piece of paper to make their own grouchy ladybug.

Mixed Media Collage – This grouchy ladybug mixed media collage uses oil pastels and other supplies for kids to create their own background and ladybugs to practice cut and paste.

The Grouchy Ladybug Literary Snack Idea – After reading The Grouchy Ladybug, enjoy a ladybug themed snack with this cute strawberry and chocolate idea. 

Eric Carle Inspired Ladybug Craft – Enjoy this fun watercolor paint activity with your kids inspired by Eric Carle’s book, The Grouchy Ladybug. 

Early Learner Printables for The Little Cloud

Paper Plate Cloud Craft for Kids – Make your own cloud to hang up at home easy with paper plates inspired by the book The Little Cloud by Eric Carle.

Cloud Art Inspired by Eric Carle – Decorate blue pieces of paper with white painted clouds using cotton balls. It’s a fun craft for your kiddos to do at home. 

The Little Cloud Cloud Shapes Craft – Have your kids enjoy fun, hands-on learning activities to go with The Little Cloud theme. This link offers a couple ideas to go through to make the most out of a good day. 

Ink Blot Cloud Shapes Craft – Make ink blots on paper turn into different cloud shapes with this neat and creative idea.

Puffy Paint Clouds – Create puffy paint clouds in this fun craft with shaving cream, glue, and cotton balls.

The Tiny Seed Activities

Eric Carle Flowers Activity – Paint, cut, and paste your own unique flowers in this activity inspired by The Tiny Seed, a book by Eric Carle. 

The Tiny Seed Flower Potato Stamping Craft – How fun and innovative it is to use potatoes dipped in paint and stamp them on paper to create a flower inspired by the book cover from The Tiny Seed. 

Sprouting Seeds Activity – Plant your own seeds at home easy with this activity. All you need are a sandwich baggie, seeds, and a paper towel. Watch and learn as your new plant grows!

Growing a Seed Story Time – Fun activity to do with your kids for them to use their imaginations what seeds they would like to grow.

The Seeds We Eat Sensory Science Activity – This helpful sensory science activity is great for teaching kids all about the seeds we eat and why it’s okay to eat some but not others. 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Free Printables

Sticky Wall Counting Activity – A fun sticky wall counting activity game for your young ones inspired by the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. 

Lego Inspired Retelling of The Very Hungry Caterpillar – Read and rebuild scenes of The Very Hungry Caterpillar using Legos. Great for practice reading comprehension.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Toddler and Preschool Games – This link offers different fun activity ideas for toddlers and preschoolers to enjoy after reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Feed the Very Hungry Caterpillar Activity – Make your own caterpillar with old cut up egg cartons. This activity has kids decorate their egg carton hungry caterpillars and comes with a free printable to download to cut up food to feed the caterpillar.

Very Hungry Caterpillar Gross Motor Activity – This fun interactive motor activity for kids to play pretend like a caterpillar and butterfly. 

Hungry Caterpillars Money Games – A fun game to teach kids how to count money using a Very Hungry Caterpillar theme. 

Toddler Activities for Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?

Color Matching Printables for Toddler – This free printable activity, inspired by the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? is great for teaching your toddler color matching skills. 

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Early Learning Pack – Click on this link for 9 different free printable learning pages for your kids to go along with the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

Paper Plate Mask – Make your own brown bear mask easy with a paper plate. Fun for kids to play and take pictures with. 

Brown Bear Circle Time Props – This link comes with a free download to cut out and play with stick puppets that go along with the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do See?

Brown Bear Magnetic Story Prompts – This activity for kids has them matching colors and animals using magnets. 

The Very Busy Spider Resources

Activities and Story Cards – This link comes with a free printable and instructions to make stick puppets that go along with the book The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. 

The Very Busy Spider Spider Webs Craft – Make paper plate, spiderweb dream catchers in this fun activity inspired by the book The Very Busy Spider.

Spider Scissor Practice – Practice fine motor and scissor skills with this entertaining spider activity for kids.

Eric Carle Spider Themed Circle Time Activity – Download free spider and web printables from this link to enjoy spider themed activities to go along with the book The Very Busy Spider.