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You are here: Home / Art / Colorful Toddler Butterfly Art with Free Printable

Colorful Toddler Butterfly Art with Free Printable

April 11, 2018 by Sheryl Cooper

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This post might contain affiliate links. CLICK HERE for more information. Thanks for visiting!

This post might contain affiliate links. CLICK HERE for more information. Thanks for visiting!

Inside: Add some extra fine motor fun with this toddler butterfly art. Download the free printable, paint with Q-Tips, and attach to a clothespin for a fun spring decoration!

As we enter our 7th month with our 2 year olds, they are much more engaged in any activity that we provide.

Especially when it comes to painting.

They love to paint and often want to create several pieces!

I kept that in mind when I came up with this toddler butterfly art activity.

I wanted butterflies that we could attach to our classroom tree, so I created a butterfly printable that can easily be attached to a clothespin and then clipped to the tree.

But even if you don’t have a classroom tree, these butterflies could clip on other things in your classroom or home.

Oh, and there’s also some good fine motor going on, as we used Q-Tips instead of paint brushes.

Colorful Toddler Butterfly Art with Free Printable

Colorful Toddler Butterfly Art with Free Printable

Watch the video here:

What we used:

  • Washable tempera paint
  • Q-Tips Cotton Swabs
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Clothespins
  • Glue
  • Butterfly printable (scroll down to find the link)

Before starting this activity, I read the book Butterfly, Butterfly: A Book of Colors. As Lucy is searching for a butterfly, she comes across many other creatures in her garden. Our children loved telling me what each creature was before we turned the pages. When Lucy finally sees the butterfly, we come to a page that shows a big, beautiful butterfly.

I read this book before we settled down at the art table to make our butterflies, so it was more meaningful to the children.

Colorful Toddler Butterfly Art with Free Printable

I provided each child with a small container of assorted paint, a Q-Tip, and a butterfly printable.

Colorful Toddler Butterfly Art with Free Printable

The children then painted their butterflies using the Q-Tip.

Colorful Toddler Butterfly Art with Free Printable

Once they were finished painting, I showed them how to fold their butterfly and press down on the paper, and then open it again.

Colorful Toddler Butterfly Art with Free Printable

We compared our butterflies to Lucy’s big colorful butterfly!

Colorful Toddler Butterfly Art with Free Printable

I cut pipe cleaners in half, one for each child.

I folded that pipe cleaner and twisted the ends.

The children selected what color pipe cleaner (antennae) they wanted.

We glued the butterfly printable and the antennae on the butterfly and they were finished!

Colorful Toddler Butterfly Art with Free Printable
free butterfly printable
Colorful Toddler Butterfly Art with Free Printable

Come see how our toddler and preschool classroom is set up for the butterfly theme!

Setting up the Toddler and Preschool Classroom for the Butterfly Theme

 

Planning your bugs and butterfly theme? We’ve done the work for you!

 

I am so excited to be a co-author of these bugs & butterflies theme lesson plans.

24 preschool learning activities for your bugs & butterflies theme, including literacy, math, science, art, fine motor, and more! A great resource for teachers and homeschoolers.

preschool bugs and butterflies lesson plans

24 preschool learning activities that cover:

Literacy
Math
Science
Fine Motor
Sensory
Gross Motor
Art
Social Studies
Music
Circle Time
Social/Emotional

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

toddler art activities
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Filed Under: Art, Fine Motor, Spring Activities, Toddler Fine Motor, Toddlers Tagged With: art, fine motor, printables, spring, toddlers

About Sheryl Cooper

Sheryl Cooper is the founder of Teaching 2 and 3 Year Olds, a website full of activities for toddlers and preschoolers. She has been teaching this age group for over 20 years and loves to share her passion with teachers, parents, grandparents, and anyone with young children in their lives.

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Comments

  1. Suzette Murphy

    April 16, 2018 at 8:07 am

    Where did you get the pretend magnifying glasses with the close up picture of the butterfly?

    • Sheryl Cooper

      April 18, 2018 at 7:20 pm

      If I’m understanding correctly, they are actually little slide books that show details of caterpillars and butterflies.

  2. Helen

    April 18, 2018 at 6:26 am

    I love this idea, I can add them to our ‘growing window’

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