This kids butterfly craft yarn activity is perfect for spring. I love how colorful it is and how each child produces a very unique butterfly. My toddler loved the cutting practice she got when trying to cut yarn. My six year old loved envisioning what she wanted it to look like and then doing just that.
Read on to see how you too can do this at home!

Besides being a great addition to our toddler activities as well as preschool activities this beautiful arts and crafts activity worked just as great for my elementary grade school kids too!
If you’ve been following my instagram account you would see that we just went through a real butterfly life cycle. My kids have been so interested in learning more about butterflies, looking at their beautiful colors and this ties in so beautifully to our spring theme. I took out our butterfly and spring themed sensory bin, placed our insect lore real butterflies nearby and allowed them to create!
Butterfly Craft Yarn Activity Materials Required:
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- Butterfly Template (Get it at the bottom of this post)
- Contact Paper
- Yarn (I love this combination pack for all of our activities.)
- Age appropriate scissors
Preparing the Butterfly Activity
You can either cut out your own butterflies or use my printable butterflies. Then, outline the wings on your contact paper and cut it out.
You can cut a whole within each wing and place contact paper over the whole to make a sticky surface like the picture above.
OR
You can remove the paper backing from the contact paper and double sided tape/glue the non-sticky side down to your butterfly. That is what I did for the below example.
The Kids Butterfly Yarn Craft Activity
Have your child cut out the colors they want to use. My two year old toddler especially loved this part.
Cutting yarn makes these little ones so proud because they can visually see the cause and effect of each snip. As they make a snip, a piece of yarn falls down with one simple cut. If you are working with a toddler you MUST sit with them and monitor them to ensure that they are cutting away from their fingers.
I watched my toddler and corrected her whenever I thought she was getting too close to her hand but still allowed her to safely experiment with the scissors.
Then she placed the yarn on the sticky contact paper.
Since we didn’t use glue and used contact paper instead this allowed my toddler to really experiment with her own artistic and creative skills. It also kept the mess minimal. I love contact paper and think it is a must in every home!
My six year old envisioned what she wanted her butterfly to look like and had fun putting it together. I was surprised that she didn’t put too much yarn as most kids would.
I was so proud of her. She went with her own artistic creativity and I loved the results. Art and creating is so much about finding your own confidence and following your own creative path.
I joined the kids too as I really enjoy the creative outlet and the calm mixed with creating. Can you guess which one is mine?
A butterfly created by my six year old, my two year old toddler and one by me!
Grab a copy of this activity
GET AND PRINT THIS ACTIVITY BY CLICKING HERE!
Looking for more butterfly or yarned themed activities?
Check out my recommendations for other Spring, Butterfly and yarn themed kids activities:
– Printable butterfly finger paint activity
– Yarn Shapes Weaving Activity
– Ladybug Cut and Paste Activity
– Ladybug Counting Playdough Mats
– Butterfly Sensory Bin
What a fun idea. I am planning on doing some butterfly activities with my daughter. This will be something fun to add to it. I think my older girls will enjoy it too!
My daughter has made vegetable using wool… This is also so cute… Multi-colour butterly