Craft a Butterfly and Chrysalis

What You Need:

• Empty toilet paper roll
• Yarn
• Glue
• Tissue paper – colorful tissue paper works best
• Wooden clothes pin

What You Do:

1. Take a piece of tissue paper and fold it up accordion style. Slide the folded paper to the end of the legs of the clothes pin. Glue it into your clothes pin to make a butterfly.
2. Spread glue along the toilet paper roll.
3. Wrap yarn around the roll in tight circles until it is completely covered. Leave one end open. Now you have a chrysalis for your butterfly to emerge from.
4. Once your chrysalis and butterfly are dried, have your child tie a length of yarn around the body of the butterfly. Tuck it into the cocoon, and gently pull the string to recreate the special moment when the butterfly emerges.

Did You Know?

• Butterflies vary in how long they remain in their chrysalis stage.
• When butterflies first emerge from their cocoon they must wait until their wings dry before they can fly. It can take 1 – 3 hours, in which time they are extremely vulnerable to predators.
• Butterflies eat nectar from flowers and carry pollen with them from plant to plant making them important pollinators.