Fluttering Butterfly Craft
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I know it's winter, and most people are doing winter crafts with their kids, but honestly, I just haven't had the heart to do so. Our weather is right now in the 60s which is totally bizarre to me. I'm used to cold, wet, or snowy winters.... not cool, sunny ones. It's very weird ... but I'm thankful for the sun and warmth!
This butterfly craft was inspired by our local butterfly grove. Nearby our home is a plot of land where monarch butterflies migrate to during the winter. How neat is that? Last week we hiked up to the butterfly grove and saw thousands of butterflies, clumped together in tree branches. It was a pretty amazing sight. (And I WISH I could have taken photos of them, but they were just too high up to get a decent shot.) One of the other children at the park found a dead butterfly on the ground and showed everyone. Chuck really wanted to find one of his own, but we never did. So I came up with this craft so that he could have his very own fluttering butterfly.
Looking for kids' butterfly books?
This would definitely be a great craft to go along with any of these great butterfly books!
- Hungry Catterpillar
- My Oh My- A butterfly
- Butterfly and Moth
- Gideon's Dream
- From Caterpillar to Butterfly
So before we start, here's a quick video of Chuck playing with his butterfly!
Fluttering Butterfly Craft for kids! from Pink Stripey Socks on Vimeo.
Cute, right? Here's how we made our fluttering butterflies!
1. First we went on Youtube and watched a bunch of videos showing how butterflies move their wings. Then, I folded a sheet of paper and drew half of a butterfly on one side. (I made the body pretty wide, because that's where I was going to make several folds.)
2. Then, I opened it up. (I repeated the same procedure with a very large sheet of craft paper. It kept curling, so I placed heavy books on top.)
3. Then, Chuck and I painted the butterflies. (He painted 2 and then got tired, so I finished the rest.)
How to fold the butterfly so it flutters!
4. Once they dried, I folded the butterfly in half. Then, I folded down one wing partially down. Then I folded the other side partially down. (Picture the folds like paper airplane folds. This way the child can hold the body while the wings flutter.) Then, I stapled the two halves together.
6. I did the same thing with the giant butterfly, but we found it too hard to flutter. So I cut two slits into a cardboard roll and slid the butterfly's body into the slits. Two pieces of tape secured it in place. Now we could move the cardboard roll up and down to flutter our giant butterfly.
7. Then, we used markers and stickers to add additional butterfly details.
Now Chuck had his own bunch of beautiful butterflies!
Here I am fluttering the giant butterfly!
He probably spent half an hour jumping with the butterflies...
and running with them too.
I hope you have fun making and playing with these butterflies too! And if you liked this craft, you might like making these egg carton ants and bees too!
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