Butterflies start out as tiny eggs in leaves. For the eggs, ask students to cut out large sizes of leaves using green construction paper and gluing these leaves onto a green or brown pipe cleaner. Leave out the branch to dry and get some rice grains. Using water color, paint the rice grains yellow to make it look like butterfly eggs and let it dry. Once dry, glue the rice grains onto the leaves, with the rice grains positioned upright and very near each other. Set aside the eggs and let it dry.
The caterpillar, or larva, form is the next stage that comes when the eggs hatch. Again, cut out large leaves using green construction paper and glue it onto a pipe cleaner. Get some green pipe cleaners and ask your students to cut it to about 3 to 5 inches. Add some small googly eyes to one end of the pipe cleaner to make the caterpillar’s face. On the branch, make small rips and round cuts to make it appear that it’s been eaten by the caterpillar. Glue the caterpillar near the cuts.
The pupa form of the butterfly’s life cycle is the stage where it transforms from a caterpillar into an adult butterfly. At this stage, the caterpillar covers itself with a cocoon, which hardens and develops for several days. Create another branch using the same process in the previous sections. For the pupa, find some large pieces of shell pasta and paint them brown. Let the pasta dry and glue a small thread on one of its end. Glue the other end of the thread to the leaf to suspend the pupa.
The adult butterfly emerges from the pupa in its complete form, having a physical form that’s totally different from the caterpillar. To make your butterfly, get several pieces of pipe cleaners with different colors. Cut about 5 inches of pipe cleaner to serve as the butterfly’s body, and then cut four more that are about 8 to 9 inches. These four pipe cleaners will serve as the butterfly’s wings and your students just need to twist it onto the body and shape it like a butterfly’s wing. Once the model is finished, glue it onto another branch. To finish the project, ask your students to combine the four different stages by putting the branches together and tying pipe cleaners to secure them. This can be put on a flower pot with additional pipe cleaners or can be suspended using strings.