Bug Jar

The kids have been very interested in bugs lately. They love ctaching ants and fireflies. I made them these bug jars out of plastic peanut butter containers. I painted a bee and a lady bug on the lid and then we used a small drill bit to put a few holes in the top. The kids have been catching bugs all morning. So fun!!

Other crafts to do with Caterpillars and Butterflies

Button Caterpillars

Caterpillar Clip Magnets

Coffee Filter Butterfly

Egg Carton Caterpillars

Butterfly Clips

Butterfly Drawings

We have been all about butterflies this week! Since our field trip to the conservatory, we took our butterfly guide and colored butterfly cut outs to look like some of our favorites we saw. We had some great discussions about all that we learned about butterflies that we didn't know before.

Butterflies!

Last summer we raised some butterflies of our own and the kids had so much fun doing it. They were amazed at every step of the metamorphosis. We got caterpillars and everything we needed to properly raise our 5 new friends from Bugville. I highly recommend doing this with your kids. It comes with a DVD that explains the process and what to expect and tells you how to care for them. I can't tell you how engrossed the kids were. They loved it. I must admit that I thought it was pretty cool too. :)

Paper Plate Lady Bugs and Bowl Turtles

Using some things we have a round the house, we made some lasy bugs and turtles. We painted both first and let them dry. After the lady bug plate was dry we glued down some black spots and a head with googley eyes. We also included pipe cleaner antenae. For the turtly we used construction paper for a head, tail and legs. So cute!

Spring Felt Board

We made felt boards about a year ago by covering pieces of cardboard with felt and gluing it on. I cut out a bunch of basic shapes at first and the kids had a ball. Then I made them a set of cut outs that would help them build snowmen and it was a huge hit. As I noticed my son making another snowman today, I thought it was about time to cut out some spring shapes. Here are our creations today. :)

Homemade Bubbles

I saw this on Make and Takes and just had to try them.  We had so much fun!  

Supplies needed:

4 cups water

1 cup dish soap (we used Dawn)

1/4 cup Karo syrup

cookie cutters

bubble wands

pipe cleaners

Caterpillar Clip Magnet

We are all very excited to order our caterpillars and watch them grow into butterflies and then release them. So in anticipation of receiving them, we made some caterpillar clips to hang on the refrigerator.

Supplies needed:

clothes pins

pom poms

googley eyes

pipe cleaners

glue

magnets

Finger Print Rainbows

As you may remember, I have 2 frames in my kitchen that my kids put artwork in every season as seen here. We have had our snowmen in there for quite a while and I have been ready for our spring picture. We made rainbows out of their finger prints using stamp pads and then we made a sun using the side of their fist and orange rays using their whole finger. We cut the sun and the rainbow out and pasted it on a blue sheet of paper and glued a few stretched out cotton balls for clouds. Now I am a lot happier to see the spring pictures especially since we had warmer weather this weekend. I am ready for SPRING!!

Supplies needed:
white and blue paper

cotton balls

glue

ink pads or paint

Art Work Wind Socks

It is really windy here today so we decided to make some wind socks. The first thing we did was make some artwork. We took a large sheet of art paper and my son wanted to draw his family on his, but my daughter decided that she wanted to cover hers with stickers. Then we taped some crape paper as tails for the wind sock. The last thing we did was punch two holes in it and tied yarn through them so that we could hang our wind sock. We have already been running through the yard (as you may be able to tell by my son's smushed wind sock). The kids had a lot of fun playing with them today.

Supplies needed:
paper
markers and crayons
crape paper
hole punch
yarn
stickers

Beach in a jar

We made a beach in a jar! Just when we are about to get some more snow, we are ready to look forward to warmer weather. We used a canning jar and poured in some sand. Then we put in some sea shells. It is a very simple thing to do, but my kids were born 5 miles from a beach and we miss it some days. They played with the shells for about 30 minutes even before we started making our beach. Whenever we feel like we are ready for the sun, we can look at our jars and day dream.

Supplies needed:

jars

sand

shells