If your kids are anything like mine, the second they see a ladybug, beetle, or caterpillar crawling across the sidewalk, everything else stops. There’s pointing, gasping, “Can I touch it?”—and sometimes a little squeal, depending on the bug. That curiosity and excitement is exactly why we love diving into bug crafts at home. Whether it’s a rainy day, a themed week at school, or just a random Tuesday afternoon, bug crafts are a super fun way to keep little hands busy and imaginations buzzing (see what I did there?).
These aren’t the stiff, sit-still-and-follow-the-rules kind of crafts. These are colorful, hands-on, move-your-body-around-the-room kind of crafts that invite exploration and creativity. They’re simple enough for toddlers to enjoy, and open-ended enough for older preschoolers and kindergartners to make their own mark. Plus, we love how these bug crafts naturally open the door to so many learning moments—from counting spots on a ladybug to talking about pollination with bees to sounding out the word “caterpillar.”
Why You’ll Love These Bug Crafts:
- Easy to set up with everyday supplies
- Perfect for bug-themed units or insect studies
- A great mix of process art and more guided projects
- Helps build fine motor skills and encourage early science learning
- Fun to do indoors or outside on a picnic blanket
Let’s make some bugs
Bug Crafts for Kids
Cotton Pad Butterfly Craft
Soft and fluffy cotton pads transform into beautiful butterflies with a little paint, pipe cleaners, and creativity—perfect for a simple and fun spring craft!
Popsicle Stick Butterfly Craft
Colorful wings and a sturdy popsicle stick body make this butterfly craft easy for little hands to create and customize with paint, markers, or stickers.
3D Butterfly Craft
This 3D butterfly craft is easy for kids to create and looks wonderful displayed at school or home. Perfect for the spring or summer.
Nature Butterfly Sticky Wall Craft
Create a beautiful butterfly craft using items found in nature! This nature butterfly sticky wall craft is a fun and easy summer and spring craft for kids!
Coffee Filter Butterfly Craft
This beautiful coffee filter butterfly craft is the perfect indoor craft activity for a sponge day! Create unique butterfly wings with markers and water using a coffee household item – coffee filters! This is a great craft toddlers and preschoolers!
Scrunched Paper Bee Craft
Buzzzzzzzz.. Spring is in the air! Create this adorable scrunched paper bee craft to celebrate with your toddler or preschooler!
Torn Paper Bee Craft
We’re buzzing about bees! In springtime, bees are a lot of fun to learn about. Incorporate this torn paper bee craft for fine motor practice!
Windsock Bee Craft
This easy cardboard tube bee windsock craft is the perfect spring craft for your toddler or preschooler! Watch it blow in the breeze!
Paper Ladybug Craft
This Paper Ladybug is an adorable craft for kids to make this spring. This cute ladybug is super fun to make for toddlers or preschoolers!
Rocking Ladybug Craft
Rocking Ladybug Craft is an adorable paper plate craft to do this Spring Day. Create these beautiful ladybug that rocks using dot makers!
Potato Masher Ladybug Craft
This is easy potato masher ladybug craft for toddlers, preschoolers and older kids. Great for an insect study unit or just for fun.
Sponge Painted Ladybug Craft
To celebrate these tiny heroes, we’ve put together a fun, sponge-painted ladybug craft that’s perfect for kids who are fascinated by the little wonders of nature.
Handprint Caterpillar Craft
Celebrate springtime with this adorable handprint caterpillar craft—perfect for toddlers and preschoolers to create colorful keepsakes.
Caterpillar Name Craft
Boost early literacy skills while making a personalized caterpillar name craft, a playful and creative way to practice letter recognition.
Paper Plate Caterpillar Craft
Transform everyday materials into a cheerful paper plate caterpillar, ideal for developing fine motor skills through painting, cutting, and assembling.
Snail Sticky Board Craft
This simple and fun craft lets kids decorate a snail shell using colorful paper pieces on a sticky contact paper board. It’s a great low-mess activity that builds fine motor skills and creativity.
Snail Sticky Wall Craft
Take crafting to the vertical with a sticky wall version of the snail craft! Kids will love sticking bits and pieces to the shell outline while standing and stretching—bonus gross motor fun.
Dandelion Snail Threading Board
This sweet nature-inspired activity combines snail shapes with real dandelion stems for a hands-on threading challenge. It’s a perfect early sewing craft for little fingers using what you find outside.
Watercolour Snails
These adorable snails get their bright, swirly shells from watercolor paints. It’s a relaxing process art activity that lets kids experiment with color blending and brush strokes.
Play2Learn Toddler & Preschool Programs for Curious Toddlers
There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!
But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.
Play2Learn for Toddlers includes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.
Play2Learn Preschool which includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years. That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!
These toddler and preschool lesson plans and activities will definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!
Click here for more information: Play2Learn
Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.
Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids
Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.
Find out more and grab your copy here.
Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.
Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids
Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast? The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles tha. t show them how to think outside the box.
- 350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
- Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
- Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.
Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!
Designed for kids ages 6 years old and up.
TV Show: Curious Crafting
I’m so excited to share my crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched in July 2022 on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube! Season 2 aired in August 2023! My show was also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.
Curious Crafting Season 1 is also now airing in Australia on ABC! Watch it here!
Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.
In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.
Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.
This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.
