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Thanksgiving TWIST! Swap out butterfly wings for something festive! Check out the original project below and make turkey feathers for your fan instead. Grab some colored construction or printer paper, and you’re all set. Stay cool in a hot kitchen with this fun and funky turkey. Gobble gobble!

Did you know that inside every caterpillar there are a set of tiny butterfly wings? In fact, caterpillars grow from the inside out! Dive into this Rosie Makes activity to create your very own metamorphosing caterpillar fans.

Required Materials

  • 5 sheets construction paper
  • scissors
  • markers
  • glue
  • 2 jumbo popsicle/craft sticks
  • rubber band
  • ruler

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1

Fold four pieces of the construction paper in half (bi fold)

Step 2

Draw a uniform pattern on the four sheets of the bi-folded construction paper. Work to create mirror images of your designs on each half of the paper.

Step 3

Fold the fifth sheet of construction paper lengthwise into thirds. Cut along the fold line to make three equally-sized strips of paper.

Step 4

Fold all of your papers using accordion folds, one-inch thick back and forth. You should have four sheets of large paper to fold and the three sheets of smaller paper you made by folding and cutting the sheet of construction paper into thirds. Fold along the longer side of the paper and fold your patterned papers with the patterns facing up!

Step 5

Take the folded strips of paper and fold them in half, gluing the inside folds so the folded strips become a fan. You’ll have four large fans and 3 small ones. If you’ve never folded a paper fan, please see this video.

Step 6

Set aside to dry.

Step 7

Decorate each popsicle stick with a matching caterpillar patterns.

Step 8

Glue a small fan (the fan you made with the 1/3 paper strip) to a large fan. Make sure the folds are facing the same direction. Repeat with another large and small fan.

Step 9

Glue one of the large fans to the large-and-small fan combination you just made. You’ll be gluing a large fan directly onto another large fan, opposite to the side where the small fan was glued. Repeat this step. You will have two fans – each with three pieces (large, large, and small) – when you complete this step. One small fan will remain.

Step 10

Glue each of your fan combos (large-large-small) to a popsicle stick. The portion with the small fan should be glued to the the stick and the fold joints should face the top. Repeat with the other fan combo and popsicle stick.

Step 11

Glue the remaining small fan to each of the large fan combos on the side furthest from the popsicle sticks. You’ll be joining the two fan combos together via the small fan.

Step 12

Secure the large fan you’ve just made with a rubber band and allow to dry.

Step 13

Remove the rubber band and reveal your beautiful butterflies wings!