Beaded Dragonfly

For my last Preschool Storytime of the spring I was looking for a simple but fun craft for the kids. I found an idea for a beaded caterpillar on pinterest. While it was cute, I wanted something a bit different. I came up with this beaded Dragonfly.

It tied in well with the bug stories I was able to find in the collection and the Stella and Sam episode about dragonflies.

What you need for one dragonfly - 1 Pipe cleaner (15cm), 2 pieces tissue paper (about 13cm x 6.5 cm), and 7 pony beads.

Everything is ready to make a dragonfly

Here are the steps to make your own!

Fold pipe cleaner in half and place one bead on in the center.

Twist pipe cleaner ends close to bead to secure.

Pinch tissue paper in center to create wings.

 Place between pipe cleaner ends next to twist. Twist ends again to secure wings.

Bring pipe cleaner ends together and put remaining beads over 

both ends of the pipe cleaner to form body.

All six beads are on to form body. Kids could be encouraged to create a pattern.

Fold each remaining pipe cleaner end over last bead to secure.

Here is my flight of beaded dragonflies

You could make your own flight and use them to make a mobile. You could stick it onto an adhesive magnetic strip to make a fridge magnet. 

Your dragonflies could become fireflies with the use of glow in the dark beads.

Here are my other preschool craft ideas - Valentine's Day Monster Card and Owl Puppet.

Happy beading! 

Valentine's Day Monster Card

Here a fun Valentine's Day craft that I did with the preschoolers on Tuesday. Using two different sized hearts in two different colours we made a monster.

2 mid-sized hearts, 4 small hearts, 4 strips crimped for limbs and 2 goggly eyes

 Glue the two mid-sized hearts together to form the body of your monster.

Monster body

Attached limbs with hands and feet. Glue on eyes. Draw on nose and mouth.

Monster in progress

I printed a smiple card on card stock paper. Folded in half with message on the inside. Glue monster to front of card.

Finished outside of card

When the preschoolers did the craft on Tuesday, many of them glued the monster together right on to the card.

Here is the inside of the card which the children were able to colour the lettering any way they would like.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Owl Puppet

In addition to my beading I also love doing paper crafts. Remember last year's origami vase and flowers.

Many of my paper craft project are for children's programs at the library. Today for preschool we had an owl themed storytime. I found pictures of this craft idea on Pinterest but there was no link to specific instructions.

So here is how the preschoolers and I made this fun owl puppet.

My sample puppet

Supplies
Paper bag
2 Paper muffin tin liners
black paper - cut into a triangle and 2 circle, with a wedge cutout
brown paper - cut into 2 oval, one of which you cut in half
Crayons or markers
glue stick

Supplies

Instructions

Glue black circles into the muffin liners. 

Glue triangle and muffin liners to paper bag.

 
Glue oval to front of paper bag. Add feather markings to brown oval for the owl chest.

Glue 2 oval halves to back of paper bag so they stick out like wings.

Here is the parliament of owls created by some of the preschoolers at storytime today.

Happy Crafting!!