Littles Learning Link Up: April 16, 2019: Symmetrical Butterfly Crafts

Each month you will find:

• A seasonal round-up (usually toward the beginning of the month)
• Posts where I share what I have been up to with my early elementary children and the preschoolers I work with at our homeschool co-op (including occasional highlight posts where I share how we used ideas that have been linked up here on Littles Learning Link Up).

Each week, I will host a link up, where you can share either what you have been up to recently, or old posts that may go with the theme.  Feel free to link up more than one post.

Each week I will continue to feature a couple of posts from those that have been linked up. 

I hope you will continue to share your wonderful posts, and I hope you will find something new to try with your child(ren).

It would be great for everyone to stop by and visit the other linked-up posts as well. Check them out, leave some comments, pin those that interest you. Let's make this a real party and socialize with each other.

We are still in the middle of our metamorphosis/life cycle lessons in our class at co-op. Last week I shared the Pattern Caterpillar Crafts we made. We then moved on to Butterflies. With these units I have been doing, I have wanted to incorporate math and/or science. Of course, butterflies were perfect for a lesson about symmetry.

During our first week, we focused on Caterpillars and Patterns.

We didn't have time to read the book I had planned to read. It is a really cute book, and would be great with this lesson.

Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert

I decided we needed to have fun with paint to make symmetrical butterflies. This is something I have done before with my own children, but I don't think I had ever done it at co-op. For this project you will need:

Cardstock (cut into a butterfly shape)

Various colors of acrylic paint

Wax paper

Toilet paper rolls

Paintbrushes

Wiggle eyes

Black pipe cleaners

For both of these projects I had cut out butterflies from cardstock prior to class. You could find a butterfly template online, or draw one yourself. My daughter, Tabitha, drew the outline for this craft, and I drew a simpler one for the second craft. 

Also, in preparation I cut the pipe cleaners into small pieces for the antennae and the proboscises.

I also cut wax paper into rectangles to the children wouldn't get paint on their hands when they folded the butterflies.

We started by putting dots of paint on one side of the butterflies' wings. I let the children choose three colors each.

Then the children folded the other wing on top of it, plus folded the wax paper over the top. Then, they smooshed. 

We opened them back up and set them aside to dry. 

Then the children chose one of the colors they used for the wings, and they painted the toilet paper roll. This would become the butterfly's body. 

We set them to dry as well.

Once they were dry I poked a hole in the toilet roll toward the top for the children to poke in the pipe cleaner proboscis. We then glued the eyes and antennae on. We actually ended up using the hot glue gun for this step as we ran out of time. Plus, the antennae stayed attached better with the hot glue gun.

While we were waiting for the paint to dry we worked on a couple of other crafts. We made chrysalises.

For this craft you will need:

Craft sticks

Pom poms

Roll gauze

White glue

Scissors (to cut the gauze)

I had done this craft with my children several years ago as a part of our butterfly life cycle lessons.

The children glued pompoms onto the craft stick and we set them aside to dry. When they were dry, we wrapped them in the gauze. I placed a line of glue down the back of the craft stick to help secure them, the children wrapped the gauze around their caterpillars, then we hot glued the ends together.

While the paint was drying for the first craft, and the glue was drying for the second craft, we got started on our third craft. If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you will know I love doing sticky paper crafts with the preschool children. Of course, I wanted to make a Sticky Paper Symmetrical Butterfly.

For this craft you will need:

Clear contact paper

Cardstock

Various colors of tissue paper cut into 1 inch squares

Jumbo craft sticks

Pompoms (large and medium sizes)

Googly eyes

Black construction paper

In preparation for this craft, I cut out a simple butterfly, then I drew a smaller butterfly inside it and cut it out, leaving about 3/4 of an inch for a frame. I also cut the contact paper into rectangles that the frames could fit on. 

The first thing the children did was glue the pompoms to the craft stick. They got to choose two colors this time. I made sure to give them one big one and six medium sized ones. They got to choose which of the two colors they wanted for the larger head. Then, we reviewed patterns.

We set those aside to dry and the children were given three colors of tissue paper. We talked about symmetry and I showed them how I placed tissue paper on the butterfly so that it "mirrored" from one side to the other. They were told to try the best they could to make their butterflies symmetrical.

I think they did a great job making them symmetrical.

Once they had filled the inside frame I covered it with the second piece of contact paper and cut around the outline. Then, we glued the eyes and antennae to the pompom bodies and attached them to the middle of the wings. Again, the hot glue gun was used to speed things up, and to ensure the bodies didn't detach. 

Symmetrical Butterfly Crafts

(plus a chrysalis)

Let's take a look at that review schedule real quick:

A few weeks ago I shared my review for Poetry for the Grammar Stage from Memoria Press.

This week I will be sharing my review of CrossWired Science and next week I will share my review of Techie Homeschool Mom. 

In May I will share my review for the first two books in the Hamelin Stoop series from 12 Gates Publishing, Pathway to Liberty, Elementary Math Games from The Critical Thinking Co., the book God is Better Than Trucks from Christian Focus, another picture book titled Nothing from Worthy Kids, plus a couple of online subscriptions from EdAlive.

Phew, yes we are busy with review products again.

Here are a couple of things I would like to share with you:

Learning About Life Cycles: Tadpole/Frog Lessons

Springtime Fairy Round Up

Focusing on the Cross With 15 Jesus-Centered Books for Resurrection Sunday

Focusing on Jesus Resurrection Day Round Up

Now onto:

Littles Learning Link Up Features

On my last Littles Learning Link Up post, there were 8 wonderful posts linked up. I will be sharing a randomly selected post and the top clicked on posts.

Please, don't forget to stop by other posts that are linked up. See what catches your eye, stop by, pin the post to a relevant board, and perhaps leave a comment to let the author of the blog know you have been by for a visit. I know I appreciate others commenting and letting me know they have read my posts, so I am sure others do too.

This week's randomly selected post is:

Nadine from The Kindest Way shared 10 Eco-Friendly Kids Clothing Brands You Need to Know About.

And here are this week's most clicked-on posts:

Nicole from Mama of Many Blessings shared Easter Egg Decorating ~  4 Fun and Easy Ways to Decorate Eggs.

Brandy from The Barefoot Mom shared Baking Soda Vinegar Reaction Variations.

Join the Party!

I would love to have you join in this week! What sort of activities do you do with your young children? Do you have some favorite activities you would like to share? I invite you to link up below. I will be pinning posts on one of my relevant boards, and I would love to feature some of the activities each week from what is linked up.

Please know I may share a picture from your post and link back to it, along with sharing how we used your idea in our school time. By linking up you are giving me permission to use a picture from your post. I will ALWAYS give credit and link back. Additionally, if you choose to try out any of the ideas with your child, please make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Linky will be open through Monday night, to give me time to check out all the posts and get the Features organized. Please take the time to visit some of the other wonderful posts linked up.

No button currently, and there won't be one until I can figure it out seeing as Photobucket has changed things. Feel free to still share the picture in place of the button. Just link it to my Littles Learning Link Up permalink please.

I am sharing over at

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter