An adorable caterpillar to butterfly craft for preschoolers, plus more activities to go along with Eric Carle’s book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Click to Read About and See Photos of a Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle

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Caterpillar to Butterfly Craft for Children
What You'll Find on This Page
This caterpillar to butterfly craft is my favorite of the many cute crafts my son Johnny has made in preschool. It pairs beautifuly with Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. To make it, you need:
- three cotton balls
- paint (they used tempera, I think)
- one coffee filter
- two googley eyes
- one clothes pin
- glue
First, glue the three cotton balls to the top of the clothes pin. Paint them green, and set aside. Take the coffee filter, draw on it with markers, and then spray with water. Let everything dry overnight. The next day, attach googley eyes. Now you have a little caterpillar! To turn your caterpillar into a butterfly, glue the now-dry coffee filter to the bottom of the clothes pin. Wrap the wings around the body of the butterfly, and slide it into an empty toilet paper roll.

You now have a butterfly inside its chrysalis, just waiting to make its entrance into the world!

Most of the crafting my kids do is open-ended, so I never know how their creations are going to turn out. But I love directed crafts like this one, that teach a hands-on lesson!
You can make this craft even more interactive by sliding the wings into the middle of the clothespin instead of gluing them on, so that you can change the butterfly back into a caterpillar and recreate the entire transformation.

Caterpillar and Butterfly Books for Kids
Here are some great caterpillar and butterfly books for kids that we love:
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- The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- From Caterpillar to Butterfly
- My, Oh My! – A Butterfly!
- A Butterfly is Patient
- Where Butterflies Grow
- The Life Cycles of Butterflies
More Caterpillar and Butterfly Activities for Kids
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is this week’s pick for the Virtual Book Club for kids! Here are some more great activities to enjoy with your kids as you read this classic picture book.
- A simple butterfly for small hands to sew
- Butterfly stenciled shirt
- Butterfly cards kids can make
- Fancy wings butterfly craft for kids
- Butterfly life cycle stages learning manipulative (ad)
- Pom pom caterpillar and butterfly craft
- Exploring shapes on mats with a butterfly theme
- Butterfly food sensory challenge
- Butterfly fun science
- Paper butterfly
- How to start a butterfly garden
- Printable paper insect display
THE 2016-17 VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB FOR KIDS
Click on the image above to see all of the themes, books, and activities for this year’s 2016-17 Virtual Book Club for Kids! I am updating the page as new posts go live.
Do you have a favorite spring learning craft? How about another caterpillar to butterfly craft for us to try? Please share in the comments below, or on my Facebook page. You can also tag me on Instagram.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
A fun activity that I did with my kids in Puddlestompers when they were little was collect plant material in a sandwich size zip lock bag. Then use a pipe cleaner to turn it into a butterfly. You just squish one around the middle. We had fun collecting leaves and dandelion flowers.
I’ve seen that done with snacks in the bags. I love your version with plant material!
I think I can do this with my first graders to go with our Reading lessons..We have life cycle and particularly butterfly ones they love! This is quick enough and will let them relay at home the cycle. Love that sweet stuff.
Yes, I think this would be a great first grader class. I hope your students enjoy it!
You are just so creative! Love the cocoon for the butterfly and can’t believe those are cotton balls. Thanks so much for linking up at Discover & Explore this week – I’ve pinned you to our feature board!
Thank you!
This is a lovely Spring learning activity.
Thank you!
Butterflies emerge from a chrysalis, not a cocoon. A moth emerges from a cocoon.
Thanks, Kasey! Fixed it.
I found this via Katie’s caterpillar round up. These are so cool! I love when we use simple supplies. Very creative. My three year old will really enjoy doing this.
Such a lovely easy to do craft, I’ll be doing this one with my kiddies. Thanks so much for linking up with our Eric Carle month.
This is so cute! Thanks for linking it up :)
Thanks! Loving your butterfly linky :)
Very cute! Great idea! I followed you here from All Year Round SPRING Blog Carnival. My latest spring post is here: http://likemamalikedaughter.blogspot.com/2012/04/wonderfull-full-of-wonder-wednesday_18.html
That is a great idea I really like that. My youngest is learning about this term coming too.
Just wanted to let you know I featured your cute caterpillar here:
http://sunnydaytodaymama.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/all-year-round-week-three-7-spring.html
It’s a great craft! :)
Thank you!!! :)
How lovely, and so cool that you made it a cocoon! Did you see our caterpillars this week as well?
Thanks for linking to science sparks Fun Sparks!
I loved your caterpillars! That’s why I linked up the coccoon =)
Cute! I know my kids would enjoy this.
Very cute! :)
That is so much fun… and easy. Excellent.
I love the little butterfly peeking out of the cocoon.
My youngest son’s favorite Eric Carle book right now is Have You Seen My Cat? We made our own book with Eric Carle Style illustrations to celebrate Eric Carle’s Birthday. Hope you can come check it out:
http://www.happybirthdayauthor.com/2011/06/happy-birthday-eric-carle-june-25.html
That is so cute! I love that the final product leaves the little ones with a toy.
This is really so lovely!
What a creative craft…so cute!
That is very cute!
Fabulous craft! My children will love it.
This is fabulous on so many levels!
WONDERFUL idea! Very creative! Definitely saving it to use!
Kerri
What a great idea, and Johnny did a SUPER job!! Love the idea of recreating it over and over again too. :-)
Cute craft! This would go great with Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar- we read that book daily at our house!
I am glad that Johnny’s school works out so well for him. This craft is very neat.
This is ADORABLE!!!
I love the picture of him peeking out of his cocoon.
That is so cool! I love this craft!
That is a great learning craft!