Art, craft and shape play meet to form this wonderful 3D Paper Dragonfly Craft!
Dragonflies, with their shimmering colors and delicate wings are one nature’s most beautiful bugs. Now your Arty Crafty Kids can use our printable template design to make their very own dragonfly.
Our dragonfly craft is made up of simple shapes (rectangles and cylinders) to form the structure of a realistic dragonfly – which is a lovely, hands-on way for children to learn about 2D and 3D shapes.
The dragonfly template is a fun and engaging way to learn about these amazing insects and their unique shapes and patterns. Children can use their own creativity to color and decorate the dragonfly, adding their own personal touches to make it truly one-of-a-kind.
For more immersive fun with insect crafts, take a look at our collection of 3D Butterfly Coloring Pages, 3D Bugs and our 3D Flying Beetle Finger-Puppet!
How to Make the 3D Paper Dragonfly Craft
Materials:
- Card Stock for Printing
- Coloring Medium
- Glue Stick
- Scissors
Download the Dragonfly Template:
Make sure the printer settings are set to ‘fit to page’ and will accept heavy weighted paper.
The 3D Dragonfly template is available to members of the
Arty Crafty Kids club.
Members will need to log in to access the templates: https://www.artycraftykids.com/product/3d-dragonfly-craft-template/
Not a Member?
Watch how the 3D Dragonfly is made!
Now lets make a 3D Dragonfly!
Step 1: Use a favorite coloring medium to decorate the dragonfly template.
The Dragonfly template is an open invitation for children to use their imaginations to creatively color in the pieces that make up the dragonfly.
Our featured dragonfly has been colored with water color pens, which are a fantastic coloring medium for children – they’re quick and easy to use (with great pigmentation), and do not contribute to hand ache as children a prone to pushing down hard on coloring crayons/pencils.
Similar effects can be created with crayons, marker pens, pastels and watercolor paint from a palette.
Step 2: Start with the largest rectangle and apply a generous spread of glue to the white flap.
Put all the dragonfly segment pieces in size order.
Step 3: Curl the rectangle shape to make a cylinder.
Step 4: Curl the second largest rectangle into a cylinder to form the second segment of the dragonfly’s body.
Step 5: On the side of the clearly defined join, apply glue to the top edge of the second cylinder.
Step 6: Align the joins of the segments and affix the second segment to the inside of the first.
Step 7: Create the third dragonfly body segment and connect it to the second.
Step 8: Continue connecting the segments to add length to the dragonfly’s body.
The dragonfly’s body should begin to look like a telescope!
With all the segments connected, the craft should emulate the structure of a dragonfly’s thorax and abdomen.
Real dragonflies have 10 distinct segments while our craft features the Frons (head), thorax (first largest segment) and abdomen (remaining segments).
Step 9: Affix the head to the dragonfly’s thorax segment.
Step 10: Fold the small flaps on the dragonfly’s wings and apply a generous spread of glue.
Step 11: Affix the wings to the second segment.
