Great Big Butterfly Spring Craft for Preschoolers
As the days finally start to get warmer and the sun begins to shine brighter, it’s time for preschoolers to have some fun with spring process art! GIANT wall art is a perfect spring art activity for preschoolers. This butterfly collage art is an easy, exciting way for your little ones to get creativity while working their fine motor and gross motor skills.
Perfectly suited for different age levels, even toddlers or kindergarten students, this project will keep kids engaged and having a blast as they figure out how different techniques create a unique masterpiece. Keep reading to learn more about getting started on your butterfly collage project!
Collaborative Spring Process Art on a Big Scale
After a recent trip to the Dollar Store, my sons now have their very own butterfly net. Now, one would think this is a really great thing!
Which it is.
But the catch (literally) is they are capturing more people than butterflies.
So we had to take a break and redirect our new love for butterflies in other ways.
This giant wall collage art does double duty. Not only is it diving deeper into Eric Carle’s collage work, but it is also offering preschoolers an ALL day invitation to create.
You see, when something is GIANT, there doesn’t need a start and finish time. You simply put it up and let them come and go.
It’s brilliant, actually. This giant wall art college also requires minimum art supplies.
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Spring Emergent Readers$3.00 -
Spring Preschool Centers$9.00
FAQ About Teaching a Bugs & Butterflies Preschool Theme
Insects are characterized by three-part bodies, usually two pairs of wings, and three pairs of legs, and two antennae.
Some examples of insects are bees, mosquitoes, butterflies, grasshoppers, and beetles. Insects are members of a group animal called the arthropods. This group also includes spiders and lobsters.
Some preschoolers (and adults) have a little natural fear of insects. When introducing preschoolers to insects, it’s especially important to share positive experiences in the learning activities you choose.
Preschoolers love to hear interesting facts about well-known insects, too. Try using these insect fact cards during circle time.
Choose high quality picture books and include insect alphabet activities, insect math activities, and lots of insect themed art and sensory activities too!
An insect theme is fun to explore in the beginning of spring and throughout the season. This is when new growth is sprouting, the weather is warming, and insects are coming out of hibernation.
A preschool bug theme can also be fun well into summer when you can spot moths and lightning bugs, or when you turn over a rock to find lots of creepy crawlies in the mud underneath. I also love to teach my preschoolers about insects around Halloween.
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Giant Wall Art Butterfly Collage Art for Kids
This spring, allow GIANT process art to be your go-to activity. It takes little prep work and pairs brilliantly with Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. You will also find many books for spring on this spring book list!
Materials:
- Kraft paper
- tissue paper
- glue
- water
- paintbrushes
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar or a favorite spring book
The Set Up
Before I share this GIANT process art butterfly with my preschoolers, I want to first revisit The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
I also make sure I began to discuss the illustrations using phrases such as:
- “Take a look at all the colors on the back of the front cover! I wonder what he used to make these colors. Do you think he used markers? Maybe he used crayons?”
- “Do these illustrations look similar to other books we have read?”
- “Let’s take a look at another book by Eric Carle and see if the illustrations look similar or different. How can you tell? What’s the same?”
Again, here I am prepping my preschoolers for our GIANT process art butterfly.
After the story, I let a little time pass. I may wait a couple of hours, or perhaps a day or two. Just enough time to give my preschoolers some room for free play in between our discussions.
As my preschoolers play, I am able to prepare our process art activity. First, I mix 2 parts glue to 1 part water. I also tear up the tissue paper.
(Want to increase fine motor strength? Have your preschooler join this step!)
I also take this time to hang a large piece of kraft paper to a vertical surface and draw a quick and easy butterfly. Place the paintbrushes, tissue paper, and glue mixture next to the wall.
Spring Art for Preschoolers – Butterfly Collages
Before allowing my preschoolers to dive right in, I briefly refer back to our book and share with them how Eric Carle makes his collage illustrations for his books. I like to demonstrate how to add “just enough” water/glue mixture to make the tissue paper stick to the paper.
For this process art activity, my four-year-old got it right away, but my 2.5-year-old got frustrated the paper was sticking to his fingers. He was not ready for the hand-eye coordination that was needed to hold the paper in one hand and glue with the other.
Guess what?
I didn’t push him or force him to do it. I know he will when he is ready and we offer plenty of activities for him to develop strength in other activities that we do.
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Also, remember when I said process art doesn’t need to have a strict timeline? Well, I really meant that. There is no way I would expect my four-year-old to decorate his butterfly within a certain amount of time.
This is the exact reason why I love process art.
It allows your preschooler to dabble in and out to spark creativity when they see fit. This process art activity is also very calming since we worked outside. It offered an invitation to create ALL DAY LONG. We even worked on it a little the following day!
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Spring Emergent Readers$3.00
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Spring Preschool Centers$9.00
More Spring Crafts for Preschoolers
From paper flowers and paper collages to snipped yarn rainbows, these spring craft ideas are great crafts for kids of all ages, even older kids, because they all love spring time, right?!
Here are some more crafting projects and ideas for kids that require no special crafting supplies — our favorite kind, right?
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
Hey, this looks fun, but just to let you know, this isn’t process art. Process art is as it sounds, all about the process – letting kids explore materials in their own way, not telling them how much glue or water to use and outlining what shape they have to stick the paper in. Process art is completely designed and created by the child, not the parent.
Not saying this isn’t fun and interesting for kids, but you used the term process art incorrectly multiple times in this article so I thought I’d give you a heads up.
I respectfully disagree. The author who created this did not impose on the children. The butterfly outline was chosen in advance so that it would pair with the unit she was teaching, however, the adult remained a facilitator rather than a director. Maybe this isn’t process art in it’s most pure sense, however I certainly wouldn’t define this as a craft either. I also don’t believe there is any problem with teaching children how to appropriately use materials. For example, wouldn’t an adult intervene if a child were to try cutting his hair or shirt rather than the materials provided? And I, for one, wouldn’t want liquid glue dripping down my walls and onto the floor, so I understand the author mentioning it to her children. I think these are tiny limitations that don’t really impede the process.