Butterfly Lifecycle Craft

BY: STEPHANIE LICCIARDI, GROUP FOR THE EAST END ENVIRONMENTAL ASSOCIATE

It’s that time of the year again! Monarch Butterflies are heading back to the East End from Mexico to lay their eggs. This means that you might be lucky enough to watch the entire butterfly life cycle from your window. Do you want to brush up on your knowledge about butterflies? Try out this family-friendly craft to learn more about the butterfly life cycle. 

Materials Needed:
Glue
Paper or Paper Plate
Markers
4 Paper Leaves
1 Bean or Grain of Rice
1 Shell Pasta 
1 Squiggly Pasta 
1 Bowtie Pasta 

*Be creative and use what you have in your home! For example, I didn’t have shell pasta, so I used a snail shell from the beach. 

Step 1: Glue down the 4 leaves in a square formation

Step 2: Starting with the top left leaf, glue these pieces to your craft in a clockwise order: the bean or rice grain, the squiggly pasta, the shell pasta, and the bowtie pasta. 

Step 3: Label each stage. The bean or rice grain represents the butterfly egg, the squiggly pasta is a caterpillar, the shell represents the chrysalis stage, and the bowtie pasta is the butterfly. 

Step 4: Draw arrows between each stage. The butterfly lays an egg, which hatches a caterpillar. When the caterpillar is done growing, it turns into a chrysalis. Soon, a beautiful Monarch butterfly will emerge from the chrysalis! Then, that butterfly will lay eggs and the cycle continues. 

Step 5: Label your craft. At the top of mine, I wrote “The Lifecycle of a Butterfly.”

This is a great activity for all ages! If you complete this craft, take a picture and tag @groupfortheeastend on Instagram and Facebook. You can find a how-to video here. If you want to learn more about Monarch Butterflies, check out our reading of When Butterflies Cross the Sky by Sharon Katz Cooper.