Butterfly Crafts for Kids

A few years ago I did a post about learning activities related to butterflies, but it didn’t include butterfly crafts, so let’s take a look at some fun butterfly crafts to do alongside your butterfly unit study or for summer.

A yarn butterfly is a classic craft, and kids can make it their own by using different colors of yarn, pipe cleaners, beads, etc. Get the instructions from The Craft Train. They’ve also got a fun idea of making butterfly prints using a sponge — so pretty!

Using a sponge to make a print is sort of like doing a mirror painting, and you can do that directly on the paper with this craft idea from What A Mom Needs, which turns the symmetrically painted butterfly into a wand. A free butterfly template is included in the post.

Another take on yarn and butterflies are these yarn wrapped butterflies from School Time Snippets. This is a great upcycling project and a way to use a bit of your yarn stash at the same time.

Suncatchers are another classic craft for summer or any time of year, and this butterfly shaped suncatcher from Jasmine Ansah is a great one for kids to try. She uses a butterfly printed on regular paper as the template but you could also cut out a butterfly shape in sticky backed paper to make it more translucent if you like. Or you can make it with a plastic sheet protector like this version from The Craft at Home Family.

Make a pretty flapping butterfly craft with the template and instructions from Moms and Crafters. There’s a little bit of engineering involved with this one, so little kids might need some help, but it’s worth the work because it’s so cute in the end.

These cardboard tube butterflies from The Best Ideas for Kids are super cute and you might already have everything you need to make them. If you don’t have colored cardstock kids could also color or paint paper to make the wings.

I Heart Crafty Things has so many cute butterfly crafts I couldn’t decide which one to share, so be sure to check out their neon butterflies made with liquid watercolors and neon glitter, as well as the versions made with watercolor and black glue and painting on newspaper.

Butterfly Bead Bookmark for Kids

Butterfly Life Cycle Sensory Jars

Printable Butterfly Identification Cards

Butterfly Suncatchers

After talking about the pirate themed chalk obstacle course the other day, I got to thinking about other easy, low prep games and activities you can do with kids outside. A lot of these are ideas I found on Pinterest that don’t link to blogs anymore if they ever did, but often that’s all the detail you need to figure out what’s going on.

First, a couple from blogs that are still alive. If you have a lot of trees in your yard or in your park, you probably also have a lot of sticks, so you can pretty easily do this stick maze activity from Mother Natured. Build the maze yourself or have one child build if for another. Either way it’s lots of fun and you can keep it built to use as a labyrinth or for pretend play.

If it’s hot where you live you might want outdoor activities that involve water like this fill the bucket relay game. The only thing you might not have at home is giant sponges, but this is still pretty low prep, inexpensive and lots of fun if you have two or more kids to play. Check out how to do it from The Resourceful Mama. And check out my post all about ice and water sensory activities for more ideas to beat the heat.

Make some x’s and o’s or use something you already have to be your game pieces (you can also just draw them on paper plates for a super fast version) and make a large tic tac toe board on the sidewalk. The bonus of reusable game pieces is kids can play with the same grid over and over, which is great if you don’t have a ton of space.

I also love the idea of drawing a big bullseye on the sidewalk or driveway and using beanbags or sponges to try to hit the target. If you have hula hoops you can also set them in a grassy area and have kids try to hit them.

Check out more fun outdoor games for kids from The Printable Princess. These are more for big groups of kids, but if you’ve got a classroom full these are good ones to have on hand for getting some energy out.

Do you have favorite outdoor games for kids to play when it’s hot? I’d love to hear about them!

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