11 Creative Insect And Bug Crafts For Kids, With Images

Image: ShutterStock

Insects and bugs might not always be pleasant, but these arthropods are essential to the food chain. So, introduce your children to the best insect and bug crafts for kids to teach them how relevant these crawlies are. Besides, these crafts can also help your children develop an interest in learning about insect habits and bug catching. By the end of the crafting session, you may have a budding biologist, entomologist, or environmental scientist on your hands.

Check out a list of the best insect and bug crafts here and try them with your children.

11 Fun Insect And Bug Crafts For Kids

You can make the following crafts with simple and easy-to-gather materials. Keep clay, wool, buttons, beads, and basic stationery items like paper, scissors, and glue handy for a productive and smooth crafting session.

1. Clay caterpillar craft

Image: IStock

You Will Need:

• Green, black, and white clay

How To:

• Provide your kindergartner some green clay and tell her to make small green balls out of it.

• Press and join all green balls in a row creating a caterpillar.

• Make two small balls out of white clay and smaller ones out of black clay, and place the black ones on the white on the green head creating the eyes of the caterpillar.

In her blog, Mom Learning With Baby, Kinshoo writes about all the fun learning activities she embarks on with her son, Darsh. She says she often has to come up with fun activities to keep her hyperactive toddler busy and entertained. Playing with Play-doh and making crafts is one of the ways she’s been keeping Darsh busy. She says, “We were reading the story of The Hungry Caterpillar and so he wanted to make a caterpillar. It was fun to make colorful balls and piece them together. We then made legs and attached all of them together (i).”

Quick fact

Crafting activities can be a fun and creative way for children to express themselves and explore their interests. It can also help them develop fine motor abilities, eye-hand coordination, and problem-solving skills.

2. Woolen butterfly craft

Image: Shutterstock

You Will Need:

• Six medium-sized woolen balls dark pink in color
• Light pink chenille stems
• A pair of wiggle eyes
• Small yellow and blue woolen balls
• Glue
• Scissors
• A red craft paper

How To:

• Arrange six medium-sized pink woolen balls in a row on a red craft paper and paste them with each other and on the red sheet by using the glue. The row of pink balls forms the body of the butterfly.

• Cut light pink chenille stems, and use them to create a pair of wings around the body of the insect as you see in the image.

• Also, develop a couple of antennae by using small pieces of pink chenille stems.

• Glue a pair of wiggle eyes on the first pink ball as the eyes of the butterfly.

• Make small balls of blue and yellow wool and embellish the wings of the insect by pasting them in the wings’ space.

3. Clay snail craft

Image: Shutterstock

You Will Need:

• Green, blue, black, and white clay
• Chenille stems
• Scissors

How To:

• Guide your kindergartner to shape the blue clay into the slim body of a snail.

• Make the snail’s external shell by casting the green clay round. Place the green shell on the body of the snail.

• Create small white balls out of white clay and stick them over the body of the snail.

• Make small black balls out of the black clay and place them on the shell of the insect. You can also make eyes of the snail by using the black and white clay balls.
• Cut small pieces of the chenille stem and stick them on the head of the snail as you see in the image and little creepy crawlies are ready!

Quick tip

You can use leftover green clay and chenille stems to make trees and leaves. These can then be attached to the snail to add an interesting and natural element to the decoration.

4. Beaded dragonfly craft

Image: Shutterstock

You Will Need:

• White, blue, and black beads
• Long threads

How To:

• Thread the white beads through two similar length strings and tie these beaded strings horizontally adjacent to each other developing the body of the butterfly.

• Thread in the blue beads through four loops of strings and create one wing of the insect using two circular beaded loops as you see in the image. Similarly, make the other wing of the insect with the help of another pair of circular loops.
• Create the eyes of the butterfly by using two black beads.

5. Clay ladybug craft

Image: IStock

You Will Need:

• Red, black, and white clay

How To:

• Create an oval shape out of the red clay forming the red body of the ladybug.

• Remove a bit of one of the narrow ends of the oval body and replace it with semi-circular shaped black earth developing the head of the insect.

• Make small balls out of the black clay and place them on the red body of the bug.

• Create four legs of the ladybug by using the black clay.

• Make small circular balls out of the white clay and place them on the black head of the bug. Complete the eyes by placing two little black clay spots on the white eyes. This is one of the simple and quick bug crafts for toddlers to make using simple materials.

6. Button ant craft

Image: Shutterstock

You Will Need:

• Three black buttons such that one is oval, and two others are circular, and one button is the smallest.
• Red thread
• Needle
• A black marker
• Glue
• White paper sheet

How To:

• Use needle and thread and thread in the red string through the four holes of each button making a cross on each one of them.

• Glue the smallest circular button on the white paper sheet, the medium circular button next to it vertically downwards, and the oval one next to the circular one in a row as you see in the image.

• Draw the pairs of legs and antenna of the ant surrounding the button body of the insect by using a black marker.

Point to consider

Give your child the freedom to explore their creativity and try new things. It can help them learn the value of autonomy and responsibility, as they can make decisions and see the results of their choices.

7. Bee craft from clay

Image: IStock

You Will Need:

• Yellow, black, white, and orange clay

How To:

• Shape five flat round balls out of the black and yellow clay such that one black ball is the broadest, two yellow balls and one black ball are a bit smaller than the widest circle, and one yellow ball is the smallest of all as you see in the image.

• Arrange the clay balls next to each other in a row with the broadest in the middle and narrowest at the end as you observe in the picture. The round balls make the body of the bee.

• Make the head of the insect by using a round black ball.

• Shape the white clay flat in four pieces to create the wings of the bee as you see in the figure.

• Create small legs and antennae of the bee with the help of black clay.

• Shape two yellow and black clay balls and form a pair of eyes.

• Add a smile out of the orange clay to complete the fun bee craft. This is one of the easy bug crafts for preschoolers to make using clay.

8. Paper cicada craft

Image: Shutterstock

You Will Need:

• Green square craft paper
• A pair of wiggle eyes
• Glue

How To:

• Place the square green craft paper on the table with the green side downwards and its corners in the north-south directions.

• Fold the paper into half horizontally making a green triangle.

• Fold the right and left corners vertically upwards and make a green square shape with the corners at the top and bottom.

• Now, fold the outer upper green ends down as you see in the image.

• Fold the remaining top ends of the paper down.

• Now, fold the right and left corners inside completing the cicada craft.

• Glue two wiggle eyes on the upper part of the work.

9. Footprint butterfly craft

Image: IStock

You Will Need:

• Pink paint
• Little water
• A big flat container
• A white drawing sheet
• Black sketch pen

How To:

• Put the pink color in a big flat bowl and add a little water to it.

• Now, guide your kid to draw the body, face, and antennae of the butterfly on the white paper using a black sketch pen.

• Tell the kindergartner to place her right foot in the pink paint in the container and make a footprint on the left of the insect’s body with the toe outside creating one of the wings.

• Tell your child to place her left foot in the pink paint and make a footprint on the right of the butterfly with the toe again outwards forming the other wing. This is one of the best insect crafts for preschoolers which can be made with the things around the house.

You may also try making grasshoppers and fireflies using the same craft idea.

10. Pompom chenille spider craft

Image: Shutterstock

You Will Need:

• One black hair pompom
• Wiggle eyes
• Glue
• Orange chenille stems
• Scissors

How To:

• Use a fluffy black tuft as the body of the spider.

• Glue a pair of wiggle eyes in the front of the pompom.

• Use scissors and cut eight small legs of the spider out of the orange chenille stems.

• Glue four pairs of legs with four legs on the either side of the spider using the glue. You can also try making a spider web with some wool.

11. Light up firefly craft

You Will Need:

• Flameless LED tealight
• Transparent or semi-transparent plastic easter eggs
• Colorful markers
• Glue
• Scissors
• Craft pipe cleaners
• Googly eyes

How To:

• Use markers to create designs on the easter egg that resemble a firefly.

• Open the egg and put the flameless LED tealight in it. You can use glue to fix it in place.

• Cut craft pipe cleaners in the shape of an inverted comma or a bug’s antenna and paste it on one side of the egg.

• Stick two googly eyes below the antennas.

• Create two small wings with the craft pipe cleaner and stick at the side of the egg.

• Switch on the LED tealight before closing the plastic easter egg.

Infographic: Beautiful Insect And Bug Craft Ideas For Children

Children love small and shiny things, so getting attracted to tiny and colorful bugs, from butterflies to ladybugs, is natural for them. So, use the beautiful and creative insect and bug craft ideas from the infographic below to help your little ones unleash their creativity while making crafts of their favorite creatures.

Illustration: Momjunction Design Team

Illustration: Creative Insect And Bug Crafts For Kids With Images

Image: Stable Diffusion/MomJunction Design Team

Let’s make a 3D Ladybug Craft! Check out this interesting video on how to make a fun and easy paper craft for kids. Unleash creativity and enjoy the artistic adventure!

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Erin DeCarloCraftsperson

Erin DeCarlo is an avid crafter and greeting card business owner. Her expertise lies in creating handmade paper crafts and DIY home decor. She has sold handmade greeting cards and gifts on Etsy and in local stores over the last nine years.

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Manjiri Kochrekar

Manjiri is a freelance writer with experience in writing on a wide range of topics, including travel, education, yoga, and children’s activities, fun and learning. She is passionate about creative writing and loves to put her thoughts into words.

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Harshita MakvanaB.Com, PG Dip

Harshita is a graduate in commerce and holds a PG Diploma in Patent and Copyrights Law from NALSAR University. She has also pursued CA and has more than three years of internship experience in auditing. Her love for travelling has taken her to various parts of the world, and writing the travelogues was what brought out her love for content writing.

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