These adorable plastic spoon bugs on a branch are an excellent school activity or project to do at home with the kids to welcome in spring and summer!

Why we love this project

Summertime means flowers, animals foraging, and plenty of bugs. This plastic spoon bugs on a branch is a fun kid’s craft to help teach kids about insects, or just something fun and colorful to do on an afternoon! If you have a group of kids, you could make an entire tree of plastic spoon bugs! Great for a classroom display.

RELATED: Don’t miss my Tips for Painting on Plastic!

Supplies You Will Need

As always, a full printable supply list and instructions are at the end of this post.

• plastic spoons
• 1 sheet of green felt
• craft paint: brown, black and white, and other colors of your choice.
• tools: sandpaper, paintbrush, toothpick, scissors, hot glue gun, green marker
• Print the leaf pattern here

How to Make Plastic Spoon Bugs

1. Sand the back side of the spoons and the handles.
2. Paint the handles brown.
3. Paint the spoon in colors of your choice.
4. Let them dry then apply a second coat to everything.
5. Use the handle end of a paintbrush to add polka dots.
6. You can use a toothpick for smaller dots.
7. Use the handle end of the paintbrush to add white for the eyes. Let the white dry completely.
8. Add black dots to the white eyes using a toothpick.
   TIP – Googly eyes can be used instead of painting the eyes if you prefer.
9. Cut out leaves from green felt.
10. Draw the leaf veins on with a green marker.
11. Cut a small hole near the base of each leaf.
12. Insert the spoon handle into the leaf’s hole until the leaf can go no further.
13. Add a dab of hot glue to secure the bug to the leaf.

There, aren’t they adorable?!

More animal crafts

• Coiled Cardboard Tube Caterpillar
• Cardboard Tube Butterfly Craft
• Egg Carton Frog
• Tropical Seashell Fish

I have plenty of ideas for animal crafts here. So be sure to check them all out!

This post was originally published on this blog on Jul 16, 2014.