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Today I’m sharing over 20 bug crafts for kids! Whether you love’em or hate’em in real life, insect crafts are LOTS of fun. They are a great way to help kids learn and appreciate our six-legged friends.
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There is no shortage of bugs where we live. I find them super-interesting to examine up close, but the way they crawl and fly around has been known to cause a minor freak-out (on the odd occasion only, hah!).
When it comes to kids, I’m convinced that the more they observe and learn about minibeasts, the less they will be afraid of them.
If we find an unusual-looking insect in our house or garden I encourage my girls to catch it in their bug catcher for a closer look. Occasionally we set up an insect habitat and and observe the bug for a few days before releasing it back into the garden. We research the insect to uncover some interesting facts about it and sometimes design a bug craft based around it.
I’m hoping that taking steps like these to appreciate the beauty and complexity of nature will help my kids to grow into the type of adults who DON’T freak out at the sight of a bug. I’m picturing them becoming one of those admirable individuals who can calmly catch a big, hairy spider in a container and gently place it outside (hey, there’s always hope!).
Living in Australia, there will be plenty of opportunity to practice that skill.
Let’s move onto some of our favourite insect and bug crafts …
Over 20 bug crafts for kids
- Print and design a doodlebug-on-a-leaf using our template which has been based on a generic garden bug
- Use a traditional printing technique to create butterfly paintings based on the monarch and blue morph butterfly species
- These printable cube bugs come in both colour-you-own and full colour (they were inspired by my daughter’s obsession with a certain computer game)
- Some people are grossed out by cicada shells, but my kids have always collected them (as did I as a kid!). Here we show you how to turn them into groovy neon cicada shells
- Create garden art using leaves, petals, sticks and flowers collected from your garden. Arrange them in shapes and patterns, like the butterfly we have made.
- Create a DIY nature craft construction kit using items collected from nature. Bugs and butterflies are only a few of the things you could make!
- Use paint or nail varnish to create pebble bugs from small rocks
What’s your favourite bug? Let us know in the comments and we’ll put it on our future insect craft list.
