Egg Carton Caterpillars and Other Rainy-Day Crafts for Kids

The rain on Saturday kept us from the Earth Day clean-up in Redwood (rescheduled for Saturday, April 28) and forced everyone inside at the Mustard Seed's Sixth Annual Earth Day celebration. But nothing could stop the people from coming out in droves to the store's location on Arsenal Street to sample local foods, sign petitions for better energy and environmental policy, and to stop by Better Farm and betterArts' tables to learn about our initiatives in Redwood (and to play with worms at our compost station, of course).

betterArts had an additional rainy-day bonus activity for kids: upcycling discarded egg cartons into bright and adorable caterpillars and bumble bees. This is a great, easy project that kids totally love. Here are full instructions:

Egg Carton Bugs

Photo from Green Baby Guide.

Materials: 
Discarded egg cartons
Pipe cleaners
Googly eyes
Arts and crafts glue
Non-toxic, biodegradable arts and crafts paint
Scissors

Instructions:
1. Separate 4, 5, or 6 cups from an egg carton (or one if you're making a spider or bumble bee)
2. Using the point of a pair of scissors (or tip of a pen), an adult should poke two holes in the front for the antennae or eyes, and one hole on either side of each egg vessel for the legs (for a spider, make three holes on either side of the body for legs).
3. For each leg hole, fold a pipe cleaner in half and insert the bent side through the hole in the egg carton. this will give you two "legs" coming out of each leg hole you made.
4. For the eyes or antennae, cut a pipe cleaner in half. Fold the cut half in half again. Poke the pipe cleaners through from the inside-out. Bend the tips and glue googly eyes onto them.
5. Paint the body and face.

Want more great crafts for kids? Pay a visit to Enchanted Learning's website. To find out more about our community outreach efforts in the North Country visit the websites of Better Farm and betterArts.