Amazing Balancing Butterfly Craft

It's so fun to find a unique craft that uses common household supplies (no trip to Michaels!).  This balancing butterfly really is very simple, and the kids at our co-op this morning were fascinated  by them.

Supplies:

Watercolor Paper (optional- you can just use cardstock if you just want to color with crayons or markers)
Watercolor Pencils (optional)
2 pennies
 
You can make your own template (just make sure the two sides are symmetrical so it will balance, but if you'd rather print and cut, here is a link to the template I used.

For some of the butterflies, I glued the cardstock onto cardboard from a cereal box.  The stiffer cardboard did make the balancing effect a little more dramatic, but the floppy card stock was also fun because it made it look like the wings were flapping when the kids lifted their fingers up and down.

Brushing too much water on the butterflies does not turn out well.  One little girl this morning soaked hers so thoroughly that it fell apart, and another girl's ended up a bit warped (but still worked actually), but the watercolor effect is pretty!

You can use a gluestick or tape to affix the pennies on the underside of each wing.  We preferred the glue because sometimes you need to slide the pennies around a bit to find a good balance.

Be sure to make multiple butterlies so your kids can have fun seeing how many they can balance on themselves at the same time!

The nose is cute!

We did this craft to accompany our discussion of the science of balance going along with the book Mirette on the High Wire as part of the Five in a Row curriculum.  (Very fun book, by the way!)