Leaf Art Butterfly | Nature Craft For Kids

Fall leaf crafts are so much fun to do with little ones. There is something sweet about taking a nature walk to find your treasures and creating something fun! This leaf art butterfly craft is a simple and inexpensive nature craft for kids.

completed leaf butterfly on table with leaves around it

This post contains affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.

Our table has been full of fall crafts around here, we made this fun fall leaf suncatcher and my preschooler has had a blast playing with these leaf window clings.

We currently have caterpillars in our house that we are anxiously awaiting to watch turn into butterflies. This leaf butterfly craft was a perfect addition to all of our learning opportunities we have had about the life cycle of a butterfly. We now get to admire our adorable leaf butterflies while we wait for real butterflies to emerge from their chrysalises.

This fun fall craft is a great way to get kids outside and excited about the change in seasons. While they search for real leaves that they want to use for the butterfly wings and the perfect stick for the butterfly body you can talk to them about why the leaves are changing colors and look for other signs of fall using their 5 senses. You can also discuss types of leaves and why they may look different depending on what tree they are looking under.

completed leaf butterfly laying on table

Supplies For Your Leaf Art Butterfly

Real leaves (2 smaller and 2 larger leaves for each butterfly)
Small twig
Black marker
White glue
Cardstock or construction paper

leaves and sticks spread out on table with child's hands picking out the leaves

How To Make Your Autumn Leaf Butterfly

1. Go on a nature hunt to find your perfect leaves for your butterfly, you need 2 large leaves for the top wings and 2 smaller leaves for the bottom wings

2. On your cardstock paper glue your top wings on the paper

3. Now glue on the bottom 2 leaves to create the bottom wings on your butterfly

4. Put a straight line of glue in the middle of the leaves and place your stick on it to create the butterfly’s body

5. Add antennas with a black marker

6. Hang your beautiful butterflies for all to see

Tips & Tricks When Making Your Butterfly Leaf Craft

It is easiest if you can pick flat leaves, leaves that are already curling in are much harder to glue onto the paper

If you are wanting to avoid the leaves from curling in (which they do naturally after a few days off of of a tree) you can use laminated leaves. We prefer watching our leaves curl and love the way our butterflies look when they do this.

White Elmer’s glue works much better than glue sticks for this project

Ideas To Create This Into A Teaching Unit For Your Child

This nature craft is a great addition to a classroom butterfly unit. Here are some of our favorite ways to supplement this craft to create a great teaching opportunity.

Book: A Butterfly Is Patient is a family favorite or here are 13 other beautiful butterfly book options for you

Song: I Saw A Butterfly by Laurie Berkner

Snack: Butterfly Snack Bags

Activity: Butterfly Kit (This is the one we use every year with our kids)