Butterfly Life Cycle Craft from Recycled Egg Cartons

Make a fun and adorable butterfly life cycle craft out of recycled egg cartons. This is a great craft for toddlers and preschoolers to make in the Spring.

We love to talk about life cycles in the Spring. In particular, the life cycle of a frog and the butterfly life cycle are at the top of our list. Each year, we craft, read books, create sensory bins and even raise live tadpoles or caterpillars to witness the metamorphosis. Here is a fun butterfly life cycle craft to do with kids.

*This post contains affiliate links.

Butterly Life Cycle Craft from Recycled Egg Cartons

Egg carton crafts are always fun to create in the Spring. We usually have developed quite a stash in our recycled crafting materials such as toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, egg cartons and more. But, in the Spring around Easter time, this stash always grows.

Crafting with recycled materials is a really fun way to reuse what might be considered trash, and a great opportunity to talk to children about recycling, reusing, and taking care of the Earth. It is also a fun way to talk about Earth Day in the Spring!

Create a butterfly life cycle craft out of your recycled egg cartons.

What you need to make the butterfly life cycle craft:

Paper egg cartons (10 egg sections)

Craft stick

Washable paint

Paintbrushes

Yarn

Googly eyes

Pipe cleaners

Glue

How to make the butterfly life cycle craft:

Cut the egg carton into sections. One with 4 pieces in a square, another with 3 in a row, 2 in a row and a single egg holder. See the image below for reference.

Paint the sections. We chose to paint the egg (single egg carton) brown, the caterpillar (3 sections) green, the chrysalis (2 sections) brown, and the butterfly (4 piece) purple and yellow. But, children can paint their butterfly life cycle craft pieces whatever color they envision them to be.

Tip: The remaining egg carton pieces or the top of the carton can serve as paint pots or a palette!

Once dry, begin to decorate your painted recycled egg carton pieces to look like the butterfly life cycle! The caterpillar can receive some eyes and antennae.

Children can wrap yarn around the chrysalis, pretending to be a caterpillar making its home. Also a great fine motor exercise!

To make the butterfly, glue a craft stick to the flat side of the egg carton, and then add eyes and antennae to the top.

The life cycle will be complete! I wrote the names of each stage on a piece of paper with arrows to the kids could place the pieces where they belonged in the cycle, playing out the metamorphosis of the butterfly!

They can also be placed in a sensory bin with butterfly life cycle colored pasta, check out how fun this is!

What a fun way to talk about the butterfly life cycle with kids, all while practicing some fun recycling with this adorable egg carton craft.

What is the life cycle of a butterfly?

You can see from this craft that there are 4 stages of the butterfly life cycle, but do you want a bit more information to give to your kids?

The butterfly and moth develop through a process called metamorphosis. In Greek, this means transformation or change in shape.

The metamorphosis of butterflies has 4 stages: egg, larva, pupa (chrysalis), and adult butterfly.

First, the eggs are laid on plants by the female butterfly. Then, out of the egg emerges a caterpillar. The job of the caterpillar is to eat and eat and eat – did you ever read the book, The Hungry Hungry Caterpillar? 😉 When the caterpillar is full grown and stops eating, it becomes a pupa.

The third stage of butterflies is the pupa stage, also called a chrysalis. This is its home where it undergoes all of the changes to become an adult butterfly.

Finally, the adult stage is the emergence of a butterfly from the chrysalis. The adult butterflies have long legs, long antennae, and compound eyes. They can also fly by using their large and colorful wings. The one thing they can’t do is grow.

Have so much fun exploring the butterfly life cycle with kids with this recycled egg carton craft.