Fun Butterfly Salt Painting Art for Kids

I LOVED doing this Spring Butterfly Salt Painting for Kids in my preschool classroom because it turned into a lesson about the lifecycle of a butterfly, and also on a more abstract level, how we are always growing and changing as people.

photo collage showing a colorful butterfly salt painting craft for kids.

overhead view of the supplies you need to make the salt painting.

the outline of a butterfly is drawn in glue on a white sheet of paper.

a person is sprinkling salt onto the glue butterfly.

shaking off the excess salt from the butterfly.

photo showing the butterfly next to a watercolor pallate and a cup with water and paintbrushes.

someone is adding purple watercolor dots to the wings of the buttterfly.

a person is using a paintbrush to paint the lines of the butterfly.

the finished buttterfly salt painting next to water colors and a water jar.

Recommended Grade Level:

Preschool

Kindergarten

Supply List
Coordinating Activities

Spring Butterfly Salt Painting for Kids Supplies:

cardstock paper- white or colored
salt- any kind from fine to coarse
watercolors
paintbrushes
glue- white or clear

life cycle of a butterfly play dough mats for kids

bugs and butterflies theme preschool lesson plans

Find Coordinating Resources

Arts & Crafts, Bugs and Insects, Butterflies, Chemical Reactions, Fine Motor, Grade Levels, Holidays and Seasons, Kindergarten, Motor Skills, Preschool/Pre-K, Process Art, Spring, STEM & Science, Themes

All parents know how much their children change, and how emotionally and physically different a child is at the end of each year. The love, time and dedication each child needs allows them to transform and change— much like a butterfly!

So if you need to talk about growth and change, use the Spring Salt Painting Butterfly for Kids activity as a lesson on how we may start as one thing, but we can all change and grow into a new and beautiful version of yourself!

Using the Butterfly Salt Painting Activity with Kids

This salt painting activity for kids is an excellent way to combine skills in the classroom. It’s a relatively simple multi-step painting process that allows you to talk about science concepts, the theme you are working on, build fine motor skills AND have a blast creating beautiful art projects. It’s a great way to get fingers working on fine motor skills by manipulating glue bottles and tiny grains of salt.

Salt painting for kids can also teach students about absorption and how certain things can soak up liquids! If you’re talking about attraction, magnets, or opposites, salt painting would be a great activity to tie into those science lessons.

These Butterfly Salt Paintings are the perfect spring craft because they combine art practice and spring insects! Taking the time to study butterflies and incorporate them into this activity by creating Butterfly Salt Paintings for Kids.

For more salt painting theme inspiration, check out our Salt Painting for Kids art collection.

Materials You Will Need for Butterfly Salt Painting:

Cardstock paper- white or colored
Salt- any type!
Watercolors
Paintbrushes
Glue- white or clear

💡 Get Tips for Managing the Mess Here →

Step by Step Instructions for the Butterfly Salt Painting Art

Step One:

Gather all the things you’re going to need to make your Butterfly salt painting! This is going to be paper (preferably cardstock or watercolor paper), salt, paper and glue! At this step, you as the teacher or parent will draw the butterfly. Or you can have each child individually draw the butterfly that they want to use in their salt painting!

Step Two:

Once you have your butterfly outline drawn on cardstock, then you can take your glue bottle and go around the pencil marks on the cardstock!

Teacher Tip: Use enough glue to cover all of the pencil marks, but don’t make it too thick or goopy.

Step Three:

Put a thin layer of salt all over the paper. You want to cover ALL of the glue that you have on the paper. You can try to just hit the salt on the outline of the butterfly, but it is considerably easier to hit all of the exposed glue on your paper if you just sprinkle a layer over all of the page. Then you can dump off the excess into the trashcan, a tray or onto another salt painting!

Step Four:

Dip your paintbrush into your watercolor and lightly brush it over your salt outline! You can make this salt butterfly any color you want it to be, and even fill the inside of the butterfly with glue and salt to have more surface area to paint!

Teacher Tip: We have found that thin lines of glue and salt work better for this science and art project compared to large, solid areas of glue. If you desired to decorate the inside of the butterfly wings, we suggest things like dots or stripes, rather than filling the entire wing.

What should you do with your Butterfly Salt Painting?

These watercolor salt painting crafts would be the perfect artistic display in a springtime classroom! It would be pretty awesome to have students add florals to the wall, and add these in for a class garden. These can be displayed seasonally or can also be placed in a folder or portfolio and sent home for families to enjoy!

Extend this Activity

Focusing on Seasons: Trade out the Butterfly Salt Painting for any other seasonal image! Although Butterflies are the perfect spring symbolism, you can really do this activity in any season! Students can identify other defining symbols of seasons and create them out of salt art! Our fall tree salt painting activity is a great option for learning about the seasons.

Writing: You can extend this activity by adding a writing piece that is age appropriate. Students can write a sentence about butterflies, whether it is an opinion sentence about their butterfly, a statement about what they painted, or even a researched sentence about butterfly lifecycles!

Do you need vocabulary support for writing about the butterfly life cycle? Try these great life cycle activities:

Butterfly Lifecycle Research: You can extend this activity by having students add research to the salt paintings! Students can add an research on the lifecycle of a butterfly to go next to their salt painting. They could event do a salt painting for the different stages of the lifecycle as well.

More Ways to Explore Butterflies:

Frequently Asked Questions

These are frequently asked questions about our Butterfly Salt Painting for Kids.

Can I use Tempera Paint instead of watercolor?

You can other paints besides watercolors for your Spring Flower Salt Painting for Kids. We recommend watering down the paint, to make it drip easily from the paintbrush, so the salt is able to absorb the color.

What can I use instead of paint?

Water with food coloring also works great for this project! You can change the color intensity based on how much food coloring you use. I recommend starting with a small amount of water, so there is less waste.

Do I need to use a paintbrush?

This activity is SO versatile! You can see how we used droppers instead of paintbrushes with this rainbow salt painting art activity.

Does it matter what kind of salt I use?

That’s one of the best parts about this project- you can use the salt you have! No matter how fine or coarse, any salt will work for this activity.

Whether you are a preschool teacher, daycare provider or parent who loves an artistic moment, your kids will LOVE this hands on activity that brings butterflies to life! Leave a comment if you decide to try this Butterfly Salt Painting in your home or classroom!

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