Butterfly Learning Activities and Crafts

Butterflies are starting to show up where I live, and my daughter and I are excited to volunteer this summer at the butterfly house at our local botanical garden. She already knows a lot about butterflies, but for the rest of us, here are some butterfly learning activities and some fun crafts to make while you learn.

The life cycle of butterflies is endlessly fascinating, and you can grab a simple printable coloring page or a printable life cycle wheel kids can color and assemble from Super Teacher Worksheets (those two resources are free; they have lots of others you can get if you’re a member).

Or check out the life cycle cards (made to be used with play dough but you can also just use them as cards) from No Stress Homeschooling. This printable pack is free when you enter your email and also includes math and language arts activities.

The foldable life cycle printable from Mrs Merry Designs on Etsy is also really cute and a low-prep learning activity for kids.

Whether you have a place to go see butterflies or raise your own, you might need some help identifying the butterflies you see. Rock Your Homeschool has a great set of butterfly identification printables and journal pages to help kids identify and learn about common types of butterflies.

Look We’re Learning has butterfly identification flash cards you can use to play matching and memory games, or to help identify real butterflies you see.

Reading books about butterflies is also a great way to learn about them and how humans can help our butterfly populations. Milkweed for Monarchs by Christine Van Zandt (illustrated by Alejandra Barajas) is a rhyming story about the life cycle of a monarch butterfly with additional educational information. It notes that monarchs can only eat milkweed and encourages readers to plant some to help the butterflies that pass through their area. There are also fun facts in the back to help kids learn more. (40 pages, hardcover, published 2024 by Beaming Books, suggested retail price $18.99)

There are so many fun butterfly crafts out there but here are a few fun ones to check out:

Printable butterfly suncatcher | Artsy Fartsy Mama
Symmetrical butterfly painting | The Craft Train
Butterfly spoon puppet | Ocean Child Crafts
Flapping butterfly craft | One Little Project

Butterfly Life Cycle Sensory Jars

Work on Symmetry with this Easy Butterfly Craft

Printable Butterfly Identification Cards

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You can also see some of our other articles on reading activities and ideas here.

125 more activities to get your child to read.

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Whenever you go to the beach with kids, you’re sure to come home with some seashells and more than a little sand. Let’s use some of those treasures to make fun crafts.

This handprint craft is made with a sand-infused salt dough and some little shells from the beach. It’s a cute way to remember how little your kids were on that beach trip. Find the instructions at From Under a Palm Tree.

Here’s another take on sand dough that was used to make little ornaments and sculptures. Get the details from Pink Stripey Socks.

Moms and Crafters used air dry clay and seashells to make these cute necklaces. She used the storebought clay but you can also make your own air dry clay if you’d rather.

Crafts on Sea used a shell to make a whale, but I’m sure you could take this idea and make lots of different creatures. I love the idea of sea creatures made with shells like fish or a jellyfish or an octopus using the same method. They also have a seashell decoration made with salt dough that’s really cute and would be fun for kids to paint. Poke a hole before it dries for hanging if you want.

Or take a bunch of little shells and decorate a frame like these from Rhythms of Play. They used a handprint instead of a picture but you could also put in a picture from the beach trip.

This is probably one for the mamas to make because it uses epoxy, but I also wanted to share these cute and easy shell hair pins from Thrifty Mama Ramblings, which kids are sure to want for their mermaid pretend play.

Or how about some sensory play straight from the beach? Use store bought sand if you don’t have a beach nearby to make this beach sand slime from The Mama Notes. Thrown in some shells and kids will love playing with this one.

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