What you’ll need
What you’ll need
- A clothespin
- Scissors
- All-purpose glue
- Adhesive tape
- Coloring pencils or felt-tipped pens
- Printable template (PDF)
If you don’t have a printer at home, you can draw a butterfly (about 5 cm long) on a piece of paper and cut it out.
How to do it
How to do it
1. Print out the template and color in one butterfly.
2. Cut out both the butterfly and the paper strip.
3. Glue the bottom of the butterfly to the back of the clothespin so that its head is facing forward.
4. Fold the left and right wings upwards in line with the clothespin.
5. Take the paper strip and bend the lines in the middle upwards to create a U-shape.
6. Glue the middle of the strip around the bottom of the clothespin mouth and fold it upwards. Let the glue dry.
7. Bend both marked ends of the paper strip outwards.
8. Fold the wings upwards and attach the ends of the paper strip with adhesive tape to the bottom of the closed wings.
9. Now flutter your butterfly wings! Pinch the clothespin to move the wings up and down.
Topsy’s tip
Topsy’s tip
- You can also draw your own butterfly or trace from our template.
- Draw your favorite or invent your own fantasy butterfly. What does it look like as a caterpillar? What about as a cocoon? And what about when it has just hatched? Draw every stage of its metamorphosis and then let it fly!
Learn with Topsy
Learn with Topsy
- How many butterflies have you made at home so far? Did you make a family of butterflies? Lots of people think butterflies are the most beautiful creatures on the planet – do you? Not only are they beautiful, but they’re also incredibly important for nature. For plants to grow back again, they must be pollinated by insects. For example, bees and bumblebees do this when they sip nectar and carry pollen from flower to flower. But some flowers’ nectar is so deep inside that bees and bumblebees can’t reach it. Butterflies have a kind of snout called a proboscis that can be up to four centimeters long and is the only way certain flowers can be pollinated. Butterflies are themselves food for many animals, such as songbirds. This is why butterflies have so many offspring, making them fairly common. Even at night! Did you know that there are also butterflies that flutter about in the dark? They’re called moths and follow their noses in the dark to recognize and locate plants by smell.B
- By the way, did you also know that butterflies aren’t born as butterflies? They lay eggs that hatch into little caterpillars. These caterpillars eat as much as they can to get nice and fat to store enough energy for their incredible metamorphosis. To do this, they hang upside down from a twig or a leaf and spin a thin thread around themselves until they are completely wrapped up. This is known as the “pupation stage.” They rest like this for one to three weeks and, when their metamorphosis is complete, emerge from the cocoon a beautiful butterfly.
