Beaded Butterfly Craft
learn how to make these adorable beaded butterflies- the perfect fine motor craft for preschoolers! When you’re done, check out these easy apple crafts for preschoolers. This post contains affiliate links.
Everybody loves butterflies! This craft is inspired by their beautiful colors and symmetrical shape. It’s a wonderful multisensory activity that can strengthen many of your young crafters’ skills. At the end, we’ll attach a magnet to help you proudly display their artwork.
I first started doing this craft with preschoolers, but I found that my older kids always wanted to join in. This is a great, flexible activity for mixed skill levels, and each crafter can decide how much effort they want to put into their design.
Besides being adorable and fun, how do clothespin butterflies enhance children’s development?
Skill-building while making a beaded butterfly craft
Let’s start with fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Using a pincer grasp (forefinger and thumb) to string beads is a huge leap in preschoolers’ development. This craft has them putting beads onto a pipe cleaner. The pipe cleaner’s stiffness makes it easier to work on this skill than using string, which flops around as you’re trying to aim for the hole in the bead. (I’ll be addressing teaching preschoolers to string with flexible strings on another post!)
The fuzziness of the pipe cleaner also requires you to push the beads down instead of just letting them slide on, so kids are continuing to manipulate the beads for longer.
Spring-loaded clothespins are also great for building finger strength. This craft doesn’t require a whole lot of pinching to open the clothespin – you really only need to do it once – but you can work more exercise into the activity along the way. Most kids won’t be able to resist pinching it just for fun anyway.
Another educational feature of this activity is colors, patterns, and sorting. Depending on your crafters’ level of development, you can have them name and choose what colored beads they want to use, sort beads to use a different color for each wing or set of wings, or create a pattern of alternating colored beads. You can introduce the idea of patterns with different levels of complexity for children who have already mastered simple patterns.
Of course, as with most craft activities, we’re exercising the ability to follow directions. While all crafts require following directions to some extent, this one is more unique as it has some new steps and materials that they don’t see every day – but that are still really easy and age-appropriate to work with.
As a bonus, you can also use this craft as part of a learning unit about butterflies. Wouldn’t it be fun to make a caterpillar by stringing beads onto a pipe cleaner… and then twist it to become the wings of a butterfly?
How to make a beaded butterfly craft
Materials
- Clothespins
- Paint
- Pipe cleaners
- Pony beads
- Magnetic tape or small magnets
- Scissors
- Paintbrush
- (Glue – optional)
Process
1. Paint the clothespin with the color of your choice. Set aside to dry.
2. Thread pony beads onto two pipe cleaners. Leave about 1 inch empty on each end of the pipe cleaners.
3. Bring the two empty ends of the pipe cleaner together to form a circle. Twist the ends together and wrap them around the circle to hide the sharp ends.
Spread the beads out to leave an empty space on the top and bottom of the circle.
4. Pinch the top and bottom together and twist the pipe cleaner together in that empty space between the beads.
5. Repeat steps 3-5 with the second pipe cleaner.
6. Make sure the paint on the clothespin is dry. Pinch the clothespin to open, and slide the pipe-cleaner wings in. The clothespin will hold the wings in place, but you can reinforce it with a little glue if you like.
Adjust the shape of the wings as needed.
8. Take another pipe cleaner and cut it approximately in half for the antennas.
Fold the pipe cleaner piece in half and curl the ends.
9. Pinch the antenna pipe cleaner in the end of the clothespin to hold it in place. Reinforce with a little glue if you’d like.
Cut a small piece of magnet and stick it to the back of the clothespin. If it doesn’t stay, use glue.
Your beaded butterfly craft is complete! Did you turn it into a magnet? If not – can you think of a way to make this as a keychain?
How To Make A Beaded Butterfly (Fine Motor Craft for Preschoolers)
Materials
- Clothespins
- Paint
- Pipe cleaners
- Pony beads
- Magnetic tape or small magnets
- Scissors
- Paintbrush
- (Glue - optional)
Instructions
1. Paint the clothespin with the color of your choice. Set aside to dry.
2. Thread pony beads onto two pipe cleaners. Leave about 1 inch empty on each end of the pipe cleaners.
3. Bring the two empty ends of the pipe cleaner together to form a circle. Twist the ends together and wrap them around the circle to hide the sharp ends.
Spread the beads out to leave an empty space on the top and bottom of the circle.
4. Pinch the top and bottom together and twist the pipe cleaner together in that empty space between the beads.
5. Repeat steps 3-5 with the second pipe cleaner.
6. Make sure the paint on the clothespin is dry. Pinch the clothespin to open, and slide the pipe-cleaner wings in. The clothespin will hold the wings in place, but you can reinforce it with a little glue if you like.
Adjust the shape of the wings as needed.
8. Take another pipe cleaner and cut it approximately in half for the antennas.
Fold the pipe cleaner piece in half and curl the ends.
9. Pinch the antenna pipe cleaner in the end of the clothespin to hold it in place. Reinforce with a little glue if you’d like.
Cut a small piece of magnet and stick it to the back of the clothespin. If it doesn’t stay, use glue.
