Flannel Friday: Five Butterflies

Since in this week's story time I used the flannel story There's a Bug on the Teacher that Miss Mary Liberry had previously posted to Flannel Friday, I am going to show you my 'magical butterflies.'  This flannel works kind of the opposite of the melting snowmen that I posted a few weeks ago.  In this, the butterflies 'pop' out of cocoons to flutter around.  Here is the rhyme that I made to go with it:

5 butterflies spun cocoons, Spin your hands like 'the wheels on the bus'
Hoping Spring would be here soon. Cross your fingers
With a little bit of magic, Wiggle fingers in the air
And some warm sunshine, Arms over head for the sun
Clap, clap, clap for a butterfly!  I make the kids really clap to get the butterfly to pop out

 This one wasn't too hard to make.  You need to get some cardboard and cover it with whatever background that you want.  Then, make 5 pockets for your cocoons.  Glue some caterpillars onto the cocoons and then glue them onto the board.

Next, make some butterflies.  I cut mine out of felt and wrapped pipe cleaners around the middle leaving the tops curled like antenna.

Glue 2 pieces of yarn onto the butterfly (I cover the yarn with another small felt scrap).  Make sure that you place the yarn at the top of the wings.

Then poke holes at the top of the board and push the yarn through.  This is the trickiest part because you want the two pieces of yarn to be spaced apart so that when you pull the butterfly up the wings open.  The best way to do this is lay the butterfly so that the middle of its body is in the middle of the cocoon and stretch the yarn up to see where it goes.  Some of the yarns may cross, so make sure that you pull the butterfly with the top yarn first.

When the yarn is pushed through the holes tie the two together so that you can easily pull them at the same time.  Then I covered the holes with some fiber fill to cover them up.