Flowers and Butterflies
Tissue Paper Butterflies
Use an assortment of solid color tissue paper or patterned paper. Using half-sheets (or smaller, depending on the size of the butterfly you want to make), lay the number of sheets that you wish to use on top of one another. Then, bunch them up a little in the center. Using a green pipe cleaner for the center of the butterfly, twist the green pipe cleaner around the ...(read more)
Flower Handprints
A cute variation on the hand print. Dip your child's hand in paint (or paint her hand with a paintbrush). Place painted hand on construction paper with fingers spread out. Repeat two more times to make 3 hand prints side by side. Glue a strip of green paper below each hand print to look like a stem. Cut out leaf shapes from the green paper ...(read more)
Coffee Filter Flowers
Begin with a stack of white, basket-style coffee filters. Give your child a stack of the coffee filters and a bunch of markers, and let him or her decorate them. These will form the petals of the flowers. Once they're done, group the filters into stacks of three or four. Then twist together to bottom of the stack of filters, and secure it with a colored ...(read more)
Paper Plate Flower
Cut a paper plate into a flower by cutting out triangles all the way around edge. The triangle tips should reach all the way down to the inner circle of the paper plate, creating petals around the edge. (Trace the lines to cut along with a pencil for older children or pre-cut the plate for little ones). Once the "flower" has been created, help your child to paint the ...(read more)
Tissue Paper Flowers
Collect 5 or 6 pieces of different color tissue paper. Cut the paper stack into the shape of a long oval. Wrap a pipe-cleaner around the center of the stack and fold the pipe-cleaner down to create the 'stem' of the flower. Then fan out the various layers of tissue paper and fluff them up to create the 'petals'. You can make an ...(read more)
Egg Carton Flowers
1. Cut apart an egg carton into individual sections and have your child paint the sections with a variety of colors. (Markers or crayons can also be used.) 2. Poke a pipe cleaner through the bottom of each section to make a stem. 3. Cut leaf shapes out of green construction paper and glue them onto the pipe cleaners. You could also cut some petals out of ...(read more)
Make a Daisy Chain
Next time you're at the park (or anywhere that has daisies), pick 7-10 daisies, picking them so that there is at least 2 inches of stem at the bottom. Slit the stems with your fingernail, pull one stem of one daisy through the stem of another and repeat until you have a daisy string or a daisy chain. Have fun with the daisy chain, making a crown out of them ...(read more)
Butterfly Magnet
Begin by painting a coffee filter with water colors and allow it to dry completely. Once dry, glue the coffee filter to one side of a clothes pin, and glue a small magnet (1/2 inch by 1/4 inch) to the other side of the clothes pin. Next glue a twist-tie to the top of the clothes pin. Lastly, scrunch up the coffee filter to make the wings. ...(read more)
Anytime Butterflies
Make butterflies at home! Get a ziploc bag and fill it with bits of colored paper, glitter, beads, or whatever crafty items you have laying around. Then close the bag tightly and wrap a twist tie or pipe cleaner around the middle. The ends can be shaped into antennaes. Your little ones will have lots of fun making butterflies and flying them around the house.(read more)
Butterfly Picture
Make a butterfly picture from your child's feet! Trace your child's feet on paper in a V-formation. Glue a popsicle stick in the middle of the V (the body of the butterfly). Add pipe cleaner antennae. Let your child decorate the inside of feet (wings) with paint, buttons and glitter. Too cute! (read more)
Homemade Bud Vase
This is a fun activity for springtime, when the flowers are beginning to bloom. Take a glass bottle, such as a salad dressing bottle or a taco sauce bottle, and remove the label. Then, let your child apply small pieces of masking tape all over the bottle until the entire bottle, except the opening, is covered. Last, help your child to gently brush paint over the tape. ...(read more)
Flower Hunt
Create a small booklet by folding several sheets of construction paper in half, and stapling or tying them together. Next, cut out pictures of several different types of flowers and paste them on the pages. Write the name of the flower on each page, or let your older child do this part on his own. Then, take your flower booklet with you to visit your local arboretum or community garden, ...(read more)
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Wise Words from Sir Ken Robinson
One of the biggest thinkers on creativity today is Sir Ken Robinson, who passionately and cleverly champions what we adults can do to cultivate our children's creativity. One of the biggest practioners
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