Kids love bugs. All those creepy-crawly critters are fascinating to them.
Take a walk after a good rain and you will see toddlers bent over looking at worms. Chances are you’ve also seen kids with magnifying glasses doing a simple ant observation.
Why not fuel their natural curiosity?
Get the kids together to make this DIY Butterfly Feeder and observe the butterflies that visit.
(Related Post: Make a Glowing Firefly Nightlight)
This year we raised butterflies for the first time.
My 8 and 9 year-old watched carefully as our caterpillars grew. They wrote down the dates as the caterpillars turned into chrysalises and they tried to guess when the first butterfly would appear.
The day they started to emerge we set the timer on my phone to go off every 10 minutes, and we were lucky enough to actually see one as it entered into the world as a beautiful Painted Lady Butterfly.
DIY Butterfly Feeder
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To make the release of our winged friends a little easier on the kids, we decided to make the simple butterfly feeder craft from our new favorite book: 100 Backyard Activities That Are the Dirtiest, Coolest, Creepy-Crawliest Ever.
The book is full of gorgeous photographs and easy to follow directions that will keep the kids exploring nature in their own backyard all summer long.
Materials Needed:
- Plastic Lid
- Yarn
- Pony Beads
- Hole Punch
- Very Ripe Fruit
Use the hole punch to make 3-4 holes in your plastic lid. Try to space the holes equally apart so your feeder hangs straight. If your hole punch won’t work on plastic you can carefully use the tip of a sharp knife to make the hole. (This step is best done by a parent if a knife must be used.)
Cut your yarn into pieces that are approximately 18 inches (45 cm) long. Tie each piece of yarn to the holes in the lid.
Have your child string 8-10) pony beads onto each piece of yarn. Then tie the tops of the yarn together.
Hang up your feeder and add several pieces of ripe fruit.
We hung our DIY butterfly feeder in the flower bed, where we can see it from the front window. The kids plan to record the butterflies that visit our feeder in their science journals. Maybe they’ll even catch a glimpse of our Painted Ladies.
Looking for more nature study ideas?
