Painted Paper Butterfly

Paint! Get out big chubby brushes, and a variety of paint colors, and add in some tools like a fork to create texture on your painted paper.

You can also use old paintings you have a pile of and jump right into this project. It’s fun to take a day to create varied colors of paper.

We made green, pink, yellow, orange, and mixed colors. Paint a layer of all one color like blue, then with a large brush, pick up some yellow paint, and make lines or dots over the blue paint – what happens when those colors mix? Repeat on separate pieces of paper with other colors – like red and yellow, or red and blue.

Cut up the painted paper into 1 to 2 inch shapes. I cut squares and circles for our classroom project. Get your child involved, and let him cut shapes with you.

Draw a butterfly on a large sheet of paper, and cut, or use the free butterfly template I made for you. Set out your butterfly paper, along with cut paper shapes, a small cup with glue, and an old paint brush, or foam brush. I find that liquid glue is much easier for small hands then a glue stick. I don’t get too concerned over how much glue the children in my class are using, it’s all apart of their exploration stage. If you are concerned about your child making a big mess with the glue, paint glue all over the butterfly first for your child,

Now invite her to select shapes to stick onto the butterfly. She will be making decisions about where to place the paper shapes, what colors, and how many to use.

Glue your butterfly onto a colored paper background. Hang it up, and enjoy, or send it along to grandma! This same project would work on a smaller scale, to make cards for friends and family too!

Read a book about Butterfly’s.Eric Carle’s, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a perfect companion book to read along with this project. Follow the progress of a hungry little caterpillar as he eats his way through a varied and very large quantity of food until, full at last, he forms a cocoon around himself and goes to sleep and wakes up a butterfly.

Go on a nature walk with your child, at a park or in your own back yard looking for caterpillars. I recommend a visit to Seattle’s Tropical Butterfly House at the Pacific Science Center, my daughter and I love to go on a rainy spring day because it’s warm in the house, and smells like a tropical paradise.

Learn Butterfly Facts – I’ve found really useful kid friendly animal facts at the San Diego Zoo’s website. Here is a link to their page all about butterfly’s.