DLTK's Holiday Crafts for Kids
Grass Seed Caterpillar Craft

An adorable caterpillar craft made out of an egg carton that lets kids grow and care for their very own grass!  This craft is suitable for a spring theme, insect theme or just for fun! 

Check out Kaitlyn's blog about making this cute little craft.

Materials:

• egg carton
• paint (acrylic paint will help make sure the egg carton doesnt get too soggy when you water the grass but tempra paint will work well too.)
• paintbrush
• scissors,
• pipe cleaners,
• marker,
• dirt,
• grass seed,
• Optional: wiggly eyes

Note:   Acrylic paint is (pretty much) not washable so young children should wear old clothes and do their work away from carpet and other household fabrics.  If you catch it while it's wet, you can get usually get it out but it dries very quickly so you have to be fast.  Tempra paints are more washable, but can still stain depending on the colors you're using (I struggle getting blacks and reds out of light color fabrics).
 

Instructions:

• Buy grass seed.
• Cut the egg carton in half so that you have a line of six egg carton cups that are still attached. Trim the edges of the cups so that they stay attached but look a little more "clean".  All of the scissor work will require the assistance of an adult or older child.
• Paint the outside of the cups with whatever color you want.  I chose orange because I wanted a bright colour that would contrast with the grass. 
• If you paint the insides of the cups as well it will make watering the grass easier becuase the cardboard won't get as soggy.
• Punch two holes in one of the end cups and put a pipecleaner in them to make insect antennas.
• Glue wiggly eyes or draw eyes onto the head of your caterpillar and draw a mouth as well.
• Plant the grass seed, this can be a messy process so make sure you do this on newspaper or outside:
   
  • Fill all six cups with dirt so that it is about half a centimeter from the top.
  • Sprinkle the grass seed over the dirt in all of the cups.  Sprinkle a fair amount because not all of it will grow.
  • Sprinkle a little bit more dirt over the grass seed.
• Now wait and watch your grass grow!
• It is important to water the grass every day. Don't use too much water or else you will overwater the grass and make the cardboard soggy.  I used a syringe to water my grass so that I could have better control over the amount of water that the grass got.
• Once your grass starts getting really long you can give it a "haricut" so it will start growing more again.  This is also a messy process so do it outside or place newspaper under the area you are doing it.
• NOTE:  Cats like to nibble on the growing grass as a treat so either keep it away from your cat (good luck with that, hehe) or warn your children that their craft is going to be a cat-erpillar cat snack.

Printable version of these instructions