Last month, my son came home from school with this:
The class had to make monarch butterfly models. My first thought was “Really? Kindergarteners have to do projects now?” I don't remember having to do projects in Kindergarten, but I guess the times have now changed.
After reviewing the assignment, I thought about it for a few minutes, but really didn't have any ideas of how to make this butterfly model. Later on that night I headed online to find some motivation.
I found some really great ideas online and settled on a monarch butterfly model made using an egg carton.
My son wanted to color the egg carton, I agreed, but I didn't think it would be easy to color using simple crayons. I also needed a few more supplies so I headed to WalMart to see what I could find.
I decided that the butterfly wings would be made out of poster board and found that WalMart had a huge selection to choose from.
I also checked out the Elmer’s Display and picked up a few more supplies.
These are the supplies we used for the monarch butterfly model project:
I had heard good things about the Elmer’s Painters Paint Markers you see pictured above. They can be used on many different surfaces from paper, ceramic, and wood, to plastic, metal, and glass. And they dry very quickly. They are available in a variety of colors and retail for $1.97 for each individual marker.
How To Make a Model of a Monarch Butterfly
Materials:
- Egg Carton
- Elmer’s Painters Paint Markers – we used black, white, yellow and orange, but you can use whatever colors you like
- Poster Board
- Crayons
- X-Acto Gripster Soft Grip Knife
- Pipe cleaner
First, I cut the Egg Carton using the X-Acto Gripster Soft Grip Knife.
Then my son got to work coloring the egg carton using the Painters Paint Markers.
My son wanted to make a Monarch butterfly, so he used yellow, black and white markers which are the colors of the Monarch butterfly caterpillar. One thing I didn’t realize when I was purchasing the Elmer’s Painters Paint Markers, is that they offer a different variety of tip sizes. The black marker I purchased was a fine tipped one which he found a bit difficult to use.
Here is the caterpillar part completely painted.
Next we worked on the butterfly wings. I found a template online, traced it onto the poster board and then my son cut it out. We did this twice.
Then I made some freehand ovals to the wings to mimic the look of a Monarch Butterfly and my son got to work adding some color to them. He colored the outer part of the wing first using black crayon. Then he colored the ovals using the orange marker for a nice pop of color.
Here are the completed butterfly wings.
I then poked small holes into the top of the egg carton to make the antennae and then attached the wings to the egg carton using glue dots. Here is the completed project.
My son then completed the worksheet and we sent it off to school. It was displayed at the science fair for all to see!
You can find more information on Elmer’s Painters here:
- Elmer’s website
- On Facebook
- On Twitter
I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop on the DIY Monarch Butterfly Model Project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. #CBias #SocialFabric” All opinions are my own.