Butterfly Art! It’s Monarch migration season- when 100 million monarch butterflies fly from Canada and the northern US south to Mexico for the winter. Learn more about monarch butterflies with these great resources. Kids: can you follow their migration path on a map? Why would butterflies (and some birds!) go south for the winter? When do you think they will migrate back north? In Texas this October, we’ve been seeing the voyagers pass through our garden to sip on some of our butterfly weed and lantana. Here is a cute and easy craft that even the little ones will enjoy as you learn about these fascinating creatures.
For this butterfly art project, you will need: black paint, glue, paper, and water color paints.
First, fold your paper in half. We had used computer paper, which was *not* the best choice being so thin! Have the kids draw with pencil half of a butterfly (though my son decided he wanted to do it freestyle).
We grabbed a glue that was not full, and mixed in black paint. Then, have your child use the black glue to go over the outline of the butterfly. They can also fill in the “veins” in the wings however they like.
It works best to keep the lines thin, because we then fold back over the paper to create the mirror image butterfly. If you’d like to keep the lines thin, don’t smash the 2 sides together all the way- doing so creates very thick lines. Either way, the butterfly outlines are striking- and I love the magic moment of opening up the paper and seeing how excited the kids get:).
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Once you have your completed, symmetrical butterfly, you will need to let it dry. We left ours overnight, but it was dry within a few hours.
Use water colors to fill in the wings and the background. We looked at pictures of monarch on-line to get ideas. We noticed that they have some white dots near the tips of the wings, and that the orange varies between light and dark.
The thick black lines contain the water colors well, and provide such a nice contrast. We decided to paint the background a single color to make the butterflies pop.
I wish I could have captured (in a photo!) the actual monarchs who were flying around our garden as we painted! I couldn’t have planned it better:). The kids decided that our butterfly art looked so realistic, that the real monarchs were coming to admire it. Didn’t they turn out well? If you decide to make one, send us a picture and we’ll feature it in our gallery!
These are so beautiful as is the smile in that last photo! Love that this activity can be expanded to include science, geography, math & art. Will be pinning this for when my girls are a little older.
I love when kids do really great art projects- and then connecting them to different subjects, and even map skills.
These turned out so beautiful! We have a little monarch butterfly obsession at The Educators’ Spin On It and cant’ wait to do this art project! Your little ones might enjoy this special photo we shared yesterday with a monarch and a pumpkin! http://theeducatorsspinonit.blogspot.com/2012/10/wishing-you-delightful-day.html
Hi Becky! Finally checking out your site. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!! So beautifully done – SO inspiring. What a wonderful place to hang out. You should be so proud of what you have accomplished. We’ll definitely be trying out the butterflies and other things on your site.
Aw, thanks Barb:). I’m so glad you found it and like it!
Hiya! What a gorgeous site you have! I followed the link that you left on birth, babe and beyond…Thanks so much! Great blog xx
Oh, thank you! I love discovering and exploring new sites too;).
How pretty! I’ll be pinning this to my art for kids board for us to try, hopefully soon 🙂
Thanks Mary Anne!
The black outlines are so bold! Love this craft.
Thank you! Again, a butterfly craft! Ha, these girls love them!
Thanks for linking this post to Discover and Explore. These are absolutely beautiful! I can’t wait to try them when my girls are just a bit older.
I hope you’ll be back to share for our Earth Day theme next week.
Absolutely!:)
I love these butterfly Paintings. I would like to invite you to link up this post to my Money Saving Monday Link Up. I would love to see your post posted there!
Thank You,
Stephanie
http://lifesallaboutlittleadventures.blogspot.com/2013/04/money-saving-monday-week-2.html
I finally dumped half my glue in a yogurt pot to make room for black paint and we have our outlines. Can’t wait to get to the color tomorrow or Friday. And it will be our first time using water colours! The girls are LOVING this activity. (and I am LOVING your site).
These are great! Just wondering-does glue need to be used, or can the kids just paint black lines and fold the paper over without glue?
The glue just makes it a tiny bit raised. But you can most definitely make it with just paint! They turn our beautifully every time!