Earth Day Craft: Leaf Butterfly

Find the sturdiest leaves in your yard to create this butterfly's colorful wings. Encourage kids to experiment with different leaf shapes and paint colors. They may want to create an entire collection of unique butterflies!

These butterflies can hang from the ceiling using string, or they can be glued to paper and displayed as wall art. (You and your kiddo may have other display ideas, too!)

What you'll need:

• Leaves and sticks collected from a walk
• Thin paintbrush
• Acrylic paint
• Glue gun and glue sticks

Instructions:

1. Plan the butterfly wing design. Kids can use one leaf per wing, or join two leaves to make one large wing. There's no wrong way to design the butterfly!

2. Using a thin paintbrush and acrylic paint, paint the chosen leaves to look like butterfly wings. The wings could be one solid color, or kids can paint a fun design onto the leaves.

3. Allow the wings to dry.

4. Choose a stick to serve as the center head, chest, and abdomen of the butterfly. Kids may want to choose a thicker stick to make the wings more secure.

5. Using the glue gun, glue the wings onto the stick to assemble the butterfly. (Kids may need some adult supervision for this step because of the hot glue gun.)