Make these fun and easy three-egg-carton insects. Choose one, or do all three!
Recycling your egg cartons is a fun and super activity for your kids to craft!
Spring and insects!
It’s spring again, the sun is peering through the clouds, flowers are popping up, and so are all kinds of insects!
So in this post, I would like to celebrate the arrival of spring with this fun egg carton insect craft!
WHAT I HAVE IN MIND?
I shall recycle material like egg cartons for eco-friendly crafting, and I will craft three different insects, a Bee, an Ant and a Caterpillar!
CRAFTING AIDS LEARNING!
Any crafting that young children are encouraged to do, can address their cognitive and developmental skills, that would spark their creativity and imagination!
EGG CARTON INSECTS!
This is a fun and educational activity for kids to do where I will show how to transform a simple egg carton into adorable insect creations!
HOW SO?
Here is where it all starts, little children’s hands will touch, grab, hold, pull, squeeze, pick up, push and feel different-sized objects.
Children learn through play and the creative aspects and see how things work together, purely by experimenting and trying all types of resources set out for them.
A GREAT LEARNING ACTIVITY!
Crafting is a super activity to get young children involved in creating something interesting.
KIDS EXPERIMENTING!
Whether they are painting, drawing, playing with playdough, or sticking bits together it’s a great way for them to use their hands and learn different ways to hold, attach and stick some things together.
So this crafting activity will be an easy, and super way for the younger kids to have fun and make some interesting insects!
BACK TO OUR FRIENDS THE INSECTS!
Insects can be great for kids to look at in wonder, but they can also be a nuisance!
There is always a chance that some insect can sting or bite you, so keeping that in mind, I shall tell you what happened to my son when he was much younger.
STUNG TWICE!
You know when your child is in danger and you give out a warning to be careful, and in this case not to touch a bee, well you guessed it, curiosity took the better of him and my son decided to touch the bee!
RESULTING……
To my horror he was stung, by this rather large fluffy bee, he cried out and I ran to his aid, having figured out what had happened.
I ran back into the kitchen and pulled out a blunt knife to try and wipe out the sting and sac, failing this I foolishly attempted to pick it out, and consequently I got stung too!
So as a result, this bumble bee’s sting stung us twice!
THE WONDER OF BEES!
Having said that, bees are still valuable species for pollinating our flowers, fruits and vegetables.
They do this by removing the nectar from the flowers, and then they would transfer it to other flowers, plants, and fruit trees.
Throughout all of this, bees also make yummy honey!
Take a look at this super video that explains just that!
IT’S AN ANTS WORLD!
Those little critters, our friends the ants, you either love, or hate them, where Just a tiny segment of food, even as small as a crumb, drops to the floor, and low and behold, there they are ants galore doing their thing!
You have to be careful not to drop food behind you, or leave food lying around because if the garden door is open, you know what might happen!
It’s all about being more diligent, and covering your tracks!
Here is Explorer Max giving us an overview on the Ants life, and Max covers alot of aspects, of our friend the ant!
CATERPILLAR OR INSECT?
I included the caterpillar as one of the three insects, I shall be crafting, and you may wonder, but is a caterpillar an insect or a bug?
Let’s address this. Do you believe that the caterpillar has six legs?
SOME FACTS ABOUT CATERPILLARS.
Yes they do, just like their parent butterflies or moths, and the plus side is they have five fat prolegs with little hooks that help them hang onto things and move in a wave-like motion, and the hooks help them climb plants too.
CHILDREN’S STORY!
Do you remember the story of the ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’?
Well, this is a lovely story, where from a tiny egg, out pops a Very Hungry Caterpillar and eats its way through loads of foods and grows bigger and bigger…here’s how the story goes…
The Very Hungry Caterpillar that’s been told many times, has been written in a fun way and cleverly covers the four stages of the cycle of a caterpillar.
ARE YOU READY?
I shall show you how to craft three different insects, starting with the Bee, then an Ant and finally the Caterpillar.
THE BEE!
SOME TIPS FOR THE BEE EGG CARTON CRAFT!
CREATING THE SHAPE.
- Cut out the egg cups and make sure you can pop them inside each other to form the bee’s body.
THE BEES FACE.
- The face is part of the egg cup that has a cross with a dot in the middle.
- Then on top cut two curves to form the rim of goggles.
GLUING PARTS TOGETHER.
- Run the hot glue inside each egg cup, and insert another egg cup hold it in place, then add the next one.
- Move the face egg cup around until it fits when glued on.
- Glue googly eyes on as well before painting it.
WHEN TO PAINT BLACK.
- Once the bee is formed and glued together, you can paint the black lines around the eyes to create the goggles.
ANT EGG-CARTON CRAFT.
MORE TIPS FOR THE EGG CARTON ANT!
HOW TO START.
- This project is pretty straightforward. Take a six-egg cup holder and cut out three in a row.
STICKING TOGETHER.
- Squeeze together the open part of the egg cups, hold them in place and glue them together with masking tape to close up gaps.
- This will now take shape and look more like an ant’s body.
THE EXTRA EGG CUP.
- The extra egg cup will be the large abdomen, at the back end. Glue this on and secure.
ADDING THE EYES.
- You can glue on the googly eyes before you paint the ant, as this would adhere to the carton, although if you prefer to do it right at the end that’s fine too.
PAINTING THE ANT.
- Once all parts are glued together, you can go ahead and paint the ant in black, and allow it to dry. Then paint a white mouth under the eyes.
ADDING THE LEGS AND MANDIBLES.
- This part is easy, turn the ant upside down, simply cut the three pipe cleaners in half and hot glue them in the middle of the ant, that being the thorax.
- Cut two smaller pieces which represent the mandibles, and glue them on too.
CATERPILLAR EGG CARTON CRAFT!
USEFUL TIPS FOR EGG CARTON CARTERPILLAR.
HOW TO MAKE.
- Check out the egg cup boxes and find where you can cut out decent shapes to create your caterpillar.
- You will need at least six egg cups in a row, or two three egg cups sections.
- One side of the egg cartons is whole, but the other side, has open gaps, to make them look more whole, I added the three rounded half-cut egg cups to complete the shape.
- Although you can leave this part out, and leave the open gaps as they are.
THE FACE!
- The underside of two egg cups makes a good face.
- Two circular shapes make great eye areas.
- Find these shapes and cut two out in one go.
- Pull them together and tape them to hold them in place, making a point which you can slide into a cut opening on the neck of the body.
- Push through and secure with tape, then hot glue to hold in place.
PAINTING.
- You can choose your colours, I decided on greens and orange, just like the Hungry Caterpillars’ colours.
LEGS OR NOT.
- I decided not to include the legs, as I felt the egg cartons were enough to show a simplified caterpillar.
HERE ARE ALL THREE EGG CARTON INSECTS!
SUMMING UP THIS PROJECT!
Let’s check in, here you have, three great egg carton insect, or bug activities to craft with your kids.
As the pattern on the egg cup looked like spectacles, I painted the round shape, and it kind of works, also I made a floppy type of hat for the caterpillar, these extras add to the characters of each insect.
You can personalize each insect how you like!
Decide what you like from these activities and allow your kids to create their own version.
At the same time, your kids can learn about these insects, how they look, and their purpose.
If you are looking for resources or alternative activity packs that have everything to keep your kids busy and getting down to experiencing their creativity.
Then how about jumping in and checking out what Baker Ross offers on their insect, bugs or any creepy crawlies activity packs?
Baker Ross also offers lots of resources too!
From pens, paints, papers, glues and embellishments, and a great plethora of goodies, that you will find very hard to resist!
Hey there, when you click on links in this post and you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission that l can use towards resources (other than throw-outs) for project making within my website😀
DID YOU YOU KNOW THAT KIDLY, ALSO STOCK AN AMAZING ARRAY OF CHILDREN’S BOOKS?
Take this super BUG HOTEL book, designed to keep our children minds intriqued, with interactive flaps for new discoveries!
KIDLY, offer this very useful insect magnifyer by *Moulin Roty that would be brilliant for little hands to help them observe and learn all about the insects in our world!
Founded by a group of friends in 1972. Moulin Roty designed yesterdays toys for todays children!
Hi Julia!
This is such a cute post about crafting the creepy crawlers. I think we still have a copy of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” on our bookshelf! My grandkids loved for us to read it to them when they were little. I would encourage everyone with kids to get a copy!
Your crafts are great and you give great instructions and ideas. I will pass this on to mothers of young children!
Kudos!
– Scott
Hey Scott, I am so glad you enjoyed this article and find my instruction easy to follow! I also appreciate you passing on my project ideas, as I am sure kids would love making these fun insects! I agree with you ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’is a great story for kids to follow the life cycle of a caterpillar, and its written in such a way, that kids learn to count, discover different fruits and foods and see the outcome of the caterpillar!
This spring term in our school, we are actually studying ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and to accompany this book, kids can watch some caterpillars evolve into beautiful butterflies’, then they are released once they have fully developed, into the school garden!
So please look out for my next post, as I will try to capture this event where possible! and design and craft a butterly as a follow up to this post!
Once again thanks for your super comment and Happy Crafting!
Julia.?
Hey,
This is a really interesting article because I am part of the Educator’s Coaching Academy trying to get my coaching diploma. There are so many nursery and infant school teachers who would love to learn from you in the academy.
So, I am going to share this article with them and encourage them to take on egg carton craft insect with their small students. But also to share it with their teacher colleagues who could do the same.
There are so many other ideas on your site that they could look into also, so I will encourage them to look deeper 🙂
Thank you for sharing and keep up the great work.
All the best,
Tom
Wow,Tom!I am very grateful for such an inspiring comment! I am also so glad you are in praise of other projects and that they can be great activities for others in the education sector, to introduce to their children.
My aim within my website is to encourage and recycle regular throw-outs into lots of fun and easy activities, so we can can do our bit and help in the reduction of our land-filled sites, and in doing so to educate our next generation to be more considerate in the health of our planet!
So thank you so much for you kind words, and I would loved to hear how others get on with any project and maybe send me pics and I can add them as an update within that post!
Happy Crafting!
Julia.?
Wow Julia,
this is an incredible idea you have and I love the website how you formatted it with unusual and exciting fonts and colours.
Great way to keep kids away from screens and onto something they can create by hand.
Well done.
Hi Helen, thanks for your super comment! That is my intention, I tried to keep it kiddy friendly, so if it’s kids viewing the project or parents, I want to capture their attention and make crafting fun, especially to use up their throw-outs and once again, make good use of them!
Thanks for dropping by and do pop in again for more fun crafting!
Julia.?
Lots of good information here, and thanks for making the instructions so easy to follow. Recycling material like egg cartons for eco-friendly crafting is an innovative idea. I will save this article to share with friends and family.
Thanks or your kind comment Joseph, and for finding my instructions easy to follow!
I would love for you to share where you can, as we can contribute towards recycling our throw-outs and make even if it is a small difference, in reducing the mountain of rubbish build up everywhere, sites, rivers, and streets, and be creative in upcycling all kinds of material, into so many fun and easy projects for our kids to do!
Once again Thanks for jumping in and sharing your views!
Julia.?
Julia, I’m so impressed with your beautiful website. It has so much good information for children’s raging, exploring minds. The instructions are amazingly easy to follow, and it’s a great learning experience for the children!
Eco-friendly crafting … who would have thought you could do so many projects with leftovers? And the kids enjoy it so much.
Your website is exciting and so easy to follow. We have a granddaughter that has a one-year old. I’m going to recommend your website to her. She is very crafty, so she will LOVE this for her son.
Best of wishes with your endeavors!
Regards,
Janice
Hey Janice, what lovely comments! I am so glad you enjoyed looking at my website, my aim is to make it fun and and easy to follow for both kids and parents. It is also looking at crafting in a different way, and you are right if we put our minds to it you can create a lot of interesting projects simply by using our throw-outs!
It’s a pleasure to provide some kind of solution to our recycling and simply up-cycling it with all the different ideas I show within my website, kids do love to cut, chop, squash, glue and paint and if I can inspire them, even a little bit, then it’s been worthwhile!
Thank for your encouraging comment, always appreciated!
Happy Crafting!
Julia.?