Materials:
- Construction paper in each color of the rainbow (or any other color.. you don’t HAVE to do rainbows haha)
- Black construction paper – FULL sheet
- Scissors
- Glue stick
Instructions:
1. Make three stacks as described below of the colored paper: one for each color
- Make 2 stacks of 3″x 3″ squares – one square for each color
- Make 1 stack of 2″x 2″ squares – 2 squares for each primary color: red, yellow, and blue
2. Fold each stack in half and cut out a heart shape from each stack. When you are finished, you should have: 12 bigger hearts (two in each color) and 6 smaller hearts (2 of red, yellow, and blue)
3. Using the bigger hearts, fold the heart in half and glue ONLY ONE side of the heart on the paper.
Start by gluing around the center of the black paper.
I chose to put the colors in order, but feel free to put them however you want.
Keep the hearts folded as you glue.
Be sure to glue the same side down for each heart.
This will make it so when the hearts are opened they will lay across each other.
4. Open the hearts to layer them to make the flower shape.
The folded part will stick up and that’s OK!
5. Using the same technique, glue two more flowers in opposite corners of your paper, using the rest of the bigger hearts.
I chose to do primary colors in one corner and secondary colors in the other corner.
I also opted to keep the hearts folded for my corner flowers to give budding flower effect.
Feel free to glue these down how you want!
6. Using the smaller hearts, glue the WHOLE heart down on the paper, over lapping the bottom points of the hearts to create the wing shapes.
To show color mixing I paired the primary colors into their mixing groups:
- Red and blue = purple
- Yellow and red = orange
- Yellow and blue = green
7. Stack a scrap from green, orange, and purple and cut an oval big enough to cover the place where the hearts come together on the butterfly.
Glue the bodies of the butterflies with the matching color mixing pair.
Suggested project uses
This project can be used in the following ways:
- This is a perfect technique to help reuse scrap paper!
- Have you child experiment with the heart shapes and see what they can create! The folded hearts add a cool 3-D effect to your child’s creations!
- Get creative with the hearts to make: shamrocks, geometric shapes, and different kinds of flowers
- Write little messages inside the hearts for a fun reading exercise
- Whatever you use this project for, remember to proudly display your child’s masterpiece!
Discussion suggestions:
Here is a list of things you can talk about while doing this project with your child:
- Color mixing and art: pair this with a color mixing experiment to drive home the color mixing concept – color mixing is good for students of all ages
- Symmetry
- Talk about how butterflies and flowers relate to each other.
Skillset
While working on this project, your child will be practicing the following skills:
- Fine motor
- Eye-Hand Coordination
- Imagination and Creation
- Color recognition and blending
- Experiment time!
- Discovery moment!