Life Cycle Butterfly Part 3

Wow life is getting crazy busy! Need to get our butterfly project going since they will be here soon! The third stage of the butterfly is the cocoon.

Materials:

1 11"x17" piece of light green construction paper (I used gray)
1 8.5"x11" piece of black construction paper
paint in red, yellow and white
pencil or colored pencil in white or yellow
brad
hole punch
scissors

First step is to draw a simple cocoon shape for your template. Bearing in mind preschoolers will be cutting this, I made it very simple. You will need to trace two of the light green and one of the black.

On the black sheet, you will want to draw shapes that look like the orange in a monarch butterfly's wings. If pencil doesn't show up on the black, then use a white or yellow colored pencil.

Now the fun part! Squirt a little bit of yellow and red onto a small plate. I used the bottom of a sour cream container. DON'T MIX!

Dip your finger into a little red and a little yellow and paint on the black paper inside your shapes. Mix the two colors as you go. Fill in each section. Don't worrk if the color is not consistent. That's what makes the piece interesting and individual like each butterfly.

Now add a little bit of white onto the tray. Dipping in a pinky finger for our size and a preschooler can use any finger, make little white dots around the bottom of the wing. Put to the side to dry. Acrylic paints dry pretty quickly unless the paint was applied very thickly!

Once the wing is dry, place a green cocoon, then the wing and finally the other green cocoon on top. Make sure they are all lined up (as close as you can if the scissors skills are not the best!) Punch a whole through all three pieces.

Place the brad through the three pieces and bend back to secure.

Your final piece should look like this. You can keep it closed and slowly open it as the butterfly starts to emerge.