During this past month, my boys and I watched 5 caterpillars transform into butterflies, and nearly 200 baby praying mantises hatch from a praying mantis egg pod so it seemed fitting that we add “insects” as one of our daycare themes. Throughout the week, we created the following really cute, and super simple Insect Crafts with our daycare friends.
See Also: Life Cycle of a Butterfly – Insect Lore
Insect Crafts
1. Finger Print Beehive
To make these adorable beehives, I put a small amount of yellow and orange paint on a paper plate and had the kids stamp their fingerprints all over their beehives. They then each glued on a bumble bee cut out that I purchased from our local dollar store. Along with this craft, we read “Bee & Me” by Elle J. McGuinness.
2. Dragonflies
These dragonflies came out so cute! To make them, I cut out wing shapes from white card stock and had the kids glue on colored tissue paper. Next, we added a green craft stick and wiggly eyes. “Are You A Dragonfly” by Judy Allen is the perfect book to go along with this craft!
3. Spiders
You can’t talk about spiders in preschool without The Itsy Bitsy Spider song coming up. I decided to follow the kids’ lead with this one and we made this adorable Itsy Bitsy Spider craft. I found the idea on Pinterest! Simply cut out an “L” shape for your “water spout”, a cloud, a yellow circle for your sun, and some rain drops. Have your child glue the water spout on to a sheet of white paper. Next have them add the yellow circle and draw on some sun rays. Next have them cover a small part of the sun with their cloud, and then add the raindrops. Finally, have your child draw on a spider. Of course, we had to read “The Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle.
4. Ladybug and Bee
This was a pretty simple craft but the kids enjoyed making it. First I had them glue a red oval over a black circle for the ladybug. Next, they added small black circles onto the red oval and drew on little antennas. For the bee, they glued a yellow oval next to a yellow circle, then added two white ovals for the wings. Next, they drew on black stripes, antennas, and a smiley face. Of course, they also needed to add the stinger! We followed this craft up with “The Very Grouchy Ladybug” by Eric Carle. 
5. Grasshopper
Hand print and foot print crafts are my absolute favorite so I just had to sneak one into this week theme. I LOVE this adorable foot print grasshopper. To make one, simply paint the bottom of your child’s foot green and stamp it onto a sheet of white paper. Once it dries, add the legs. I just drew ours on with a green sharpie. Complete the grasshopper by adding antennas and wiggly eyes! We went with another Judy Allen book for this crafts – “Are You A Grasshopper?“
One more great book to go with this theme is “Some Bugs” by Angela DiTerlizzi. It’s a really simple book but at the very end, there is a collage of all kinds of bugs along with their names. My boys love learning the names of all the different types of bugs! 
Bonus Snack Idea
You could also follow this theme up with a fun “buggy” snack! I created some ladybugs out of strawberry halves and blueberries, a butterfly with grapes and blueberries, and a dragonfly with carrots and blueberries! Pair this up with Pick-Ease, and you have a healthy snack that’s sure to please any picky eater! 
