Ladybugs are so cute and attract kids’ attentions! Make this ladybug stick puppet craft with your little one and watch as they make their ladybug “fly” around the garden on the paper plate! This interactive craft is tons of fun and lends itself well to imaginative play.
Supplies Needed:
- paper plate
- jumbo craft sticks (We used the 6″x3/4″ craft sticks)
- water color paints
- paintbrush
- ladybug & flowers template
- crayons/markers
- scissors
- glue stick
- box cutter
How To:
Preschoolers can start this project by painting the paper plate green using water color paints. Let your plate dry.
Print off the ladybug and flowers template (free PDF download). Color the ladybug, flowers, and leaves. Adults might need to help cut out all of the pictures as the rounded edges might be hard to little ones to cut.
Once the plate is dry, an adult can use a box cutter to cut a slit along the smooth center of the plate. The slit in the example is a little less than halfway up the plate. Before slicing, make sure that the craft stick would is long to stick up through the proposed slit and move around. The slit should go all the way along the smooth part of the plate, stopping before both ridged edges.
Now that you have colored all of your pictures, glue them onto your plate. Make a nice garden for your ladybug to visit! Check to make sure that all of the pictures are glued down tight so that your ladybug stick puppet doesn’t get stuck under edges that may be sticking up.
Glue your ladybug to end of a craft stick and let’s play! Slip your puppet through the slit and move your puppet around so that your ladybug can visit the flowers and leaves in your garden.
More Bug Crafts!
Egg Carton Ant: paint an egg carton and add some pipe cleaners to make your own ant craft.
Mosaic Butterfly: make a beautiful mosaic butterfly from scraps of construction paper.
Toilet Paper Roll Bee: your preschooler will love making this cute bee craft out of an empty toilet paper roll!
Bug Crown: color pictures of your favorite bugs, glue them on to construction paper, and make a bug crown!
