Crafts to Celebrate Monarchs

WWF

Do you have monarch butterfly questions? Because we have answers! To celebrate Monarch Butterfly Week (May 5-9) we will host a Google Hangout with monarch experts.  Send your questions to [email protected] today, and be sure to tune in for our live Hangout on Thursday, May 8 at 1:30 p.m. EST to get your answers! 
It can take three generations of monarchs to complete the journey from Mexico to Canada each spring. These monarch crafts are a great way to get ready for Monarch Butterfly Week and will make perfect gifts from children celebrating the generations of women in their lives this Sunday, May 11 — Mother’s Day! Try one (or both!) of these ideas at home or in your classroom this week.
Monarch Origami (Ages 8+)

A paper monarch butterfly makes a beautiful decoration! Origami requires patience and fine motor skills, fundamental for children developing their handwriting and typing skills. There are many different methods to make origami butterflies, some as simple as four folds! Complete butterflies with markers, pencil crayons, googly eyes and pipe cleaner antennae.
You’ll need:

  • A 15cm x 15cm square of paper for each child
    Craft supplies (pipe cleaners, pencil crayons, etc.) for decorating the finished butterflies

Milkweed Pots (All ages)

Clay pot: Funfamilycrafts.com
Clay pot: Funfamilycrafts.com

Milkweed is the only plant on which monarch butterflies lay their eggs, because it’s the only plant the monarch caterpillars will eat. Planting milkweed in your backyard or school garden is a great way to create a nourishing habitat for monarchs.
If you are a WWF Schools for a Living Planet teacher, you may have been one of the 1,000 to receive milkweed seeds from WWF in early March. If you haven’t started your seeds yet, get them germinating in crafty clay pots. If you don’t have any milkweed seeds or seedlings, you could also do this craft with wildflower seeds. Nectar-producing flowers are very important to butterflies, too!
You’ll need:

  • Mini clay pots for each child, purchased easily at dollar stores, craft stores and garden centres
    Potting soil
    Craft supplies (tempera paint, foamies, magazines, etc.) for decorating the pots
    Milkweed or wildflower seeds or seedlings

Discover more kid-friendly activity ideas (and teachable information about butterflies!) by visiting the online home of WWF’s free environmental education program, Schools for a Living Planet. More than 50 different lesson plans and activity sheets for K–8 are sorted by grade and linked to WWF’s conservation work.
WWF’s Schools for a Living Planet connects educators and students of all ages to WWF’s conservation work. Join the S4LP community and learn how you can inspire your classrooms and classmates to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.