Art Lesson w/ Ms. Jennifer: Monarch Art
This week’s lesson is inspired by the Monarch caterpillar that my children found a few weeks ago. We kept him fed with fresh milkweed, and one day he climbed to the top of the cage and made a “J” shape. The next day, he was a beautiful green chrysalis! We waited patiently for almost 2 weeks ...and this morning he emerged as a gorgeous orange butterfly.
Shortly before fall in western North Carolina, thousands of Monarch butterflies pass through the area as they migrate south to Mexico. The butterflies travel more than 2,000 miles on their journey, and we're fortunate that Western North Carolina is right along their route! From the middle of September and continuing for several weeks into October, the monarchs make their way through the mountains along the high-elevation mountain ridges.
Let’s create a painting of the amazing Monarch life cycle to prepare for their migration:
Learn more about monarchs by following the links below:
Materials:
A photo of various life stages of Monarchs
Thick paper
Pencil and eraser
Sharpie or black crayon
Watercolor paints
Salt (Kosher or regular table salt)
Instructions:
After studying the life cycle of Monarchs, draw the different stages on your paper. You can just draw the stages, or make it more artistic by drawing them all around a stalk of Milkweed, their food source.
After drawing with a pencil, outline the butterfly’s black pattern with a sharpie or a sharpened black crayon. Do the same for the black parts of the caterpillar.
Paint your art, using a bright green for the chrysalis, orange and black for the butterfly, and yellow black and white for the caterpillar.
If you have gold paint or pens, add a few dots along the edge of the chrysalis.
For Doodlebugs Ages 2-5:
Materials:
Paper
scissors
Black and orange crayons or markers
Instructions:
Parents help the child to fold the paper in half short ways (hamburger style).
Draw the basic outline of one side of the wings.
Cut out the wings.
Open the fold to reveal a SYMMETRICAL butterfly shape.
Use your crayons or markers to recreate the patterns of a Monarch’s wings.
Here’s another fun idea to create a stripey monarch caterpillar craft:
You did it! Now don’t forget to email images of your work to Jennifer@BlowingRockMuseum.org
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