How to make a Yarn Wrapped Bee Craft for Kids

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I’m always on the hunt for an easy project for my little girls and me, and this yarn wrapped bee craft for kids was so much fun and simple. I love my three-year-old’s bumblebee (the one with the blue pipe cleaner wings). While she was having fun making this craft, she was improving her fine motor skills, such as strengthening her pincer grasp, improving finger and wrist coordination, developing graded control, and more. This practice improves her independence by preparing her to button her clothes, zip up her jacket, tie her shoes, and write legibly. That’s a craft that teaches. 🙂

Jump to Instructions for Yarn Wrapped Bee Craft for Kids: Adorable Bee Crafts for Kids

Playing is Learning!

My little girl picked this craft up rather quickly. In fact, she became so good at yarn wrapping that we have now decorated and wrapped many objects with yarn including sticks and pine cones.

Some little kids may need a bit of assistance getting started. And that’s okay. I have provided some tips to help along the way. I love that this craft also gives older children opportunities to be creative such as using the yarn in different ways, writing a play for the bees, designing scenery for the puppet show, and directing the puppet show.

Thus, this simple project is great for kids of all ages.

Spring is here!

It finally feels like spring here. It’s a beautiful sunny day. And while the girls played outside, I cut a few circles from recycled cardboard and threw together a quick invitation to create, including cardboard circles, black and yellow yarn, googly eyes, blue ribbon, and liquid glue. Somehow a few dandelions made it in there, which led to other bee craft ideas (I’ll share soon).

This made for such a lovely moment in the sunshine, creating with my little girls. This craft also led to a bee puppet show and many questions about bees. Luckily, I felt somewhat prepared to answer a few of those questions because we had just checked out The Honey Makers by Gail Gibbons from the library.

Also, I cannot place a Winnie the Pooh quote here without recommending a wonderfully inspiring picture book. We discovered Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick. Please give it a read. I found myself shedding a tear or two. Maybe it’s because I grew up watching Winnie the Pooh, but this book made that sweet little bear even more endearing.

An Invitation to Create

To make a simple Invitation to Create, gather a few supplies and lay them on the table. An Invitation to Create is not necessarily about the art product your child is making, it is about your child creating something beautiful and unique. Be warned when you provide an Invitation to Create for your children, they will most likely use all the materials you provide. Please only offer materials that you are okay with them using all up.

I hope that this craft sparks your children’s imagination. Our three adorable DIY bees turned into a cute little puppet show, and we sang the baby bumblebee song a thousand times.

How to make a Yarn-Wrapped Bee Craft for Kids

Craft Supplies List

• box cutter to cut circle from recycled cardboard
• circle from recycled cardboard to make the bee’s body
• black pipe cleaners (or other fun colors) for the bee’s antennas and stinger
• black yarn for the bee’s stripes
• bright yellow yarn for the bee’s body
• pink yarn or ribbon to make the bee’s cute smile
• large googly eyes
• ribbon for the bee’s wings
• Popsicle stick, paper straw, or stick from the yard to make a bee puppet
• liquid glue
• one hot glue stick and a glue gun (optional)

Step by Step Instructions for Yarn wrapped Bee Craft for Kids: A simple bee craft

Step 1: Cut a circle from the cardboard

First, have a grown-up cut a circle from a recycled cardboard box. You can use a box cutter for thicker cardboard, but scissors cut through cereal boxes well. You could also make little notches along the edges of the cardboard circle to make it easier for the yarn to thread into, but I did not find this necessary. If your child is having difficulty getting started, place a piece of tape on the end of the yarn onto the center of the cardboard circle to stabilize it.

Step 2: Wrap the yellow yarn around the cardboard, cut, and tuck the yarn.

Next, wrap the yellow yarn around the cardboard circle. Wrap until all the brown is covered. This makes the yellow fuzzy body of the bumble bee. Cut the end of the yarn, leaving about 2 inches. Tuck the end of the yarn into the woven yarn or use a hot glue gun to secure it.

I tucked the end pieces of the yarn without any problem with the little bees coming unraveled during a quite rambunctious bee puppet play.

Step 3: Wrap the black yarn around the bee’s body for its black stripes.

Then, wrap the black yarn around the bee’s body to make the bee’s stripes. Once you have finished wrapping the stripes, cut the end of the yarn and tuck the end into the woven yarn on the bee’s body or hot glue to secure the end.

Step 4: Glue the bee’s googly eye.

Next, glue the large googly eye onto the bee. No googly eyes? Don’t worry. Make the eyes by cutting a circle from white construction paper and a smaller circle from black construction paper. Then, glue them both together to make the bee’s eyes. You could also cut a small circle from white card stock and make a dot with a black marker on the white paper to create an eye.

Step 5: Glue the cute smile onto the bee.

Then, glue on the bumblebee’s cute smile. I used a small piece of pink yarn. But you could also use a small strip of tissue paper, ribbon, pipe cleaner, or other crafty supplies that make you think cute honey bee smile.

Step 6: Tie on the bee’s wings

Now, secure the bee’s wings by threading a piece of ribbon through the yarn at the top center of the bee’s body. If you don’t have a ribbon, you could use old book pages, tissue paper, newspaper, white card stock, or recycled plastic.

Step 7: Secure the bee’s antennas and also a stick to make the bee into a puppet.

Finally, form the bee’s antennas from a pipe cleaner and hot glue onto the bee’s head. I used hot glue to secure the pipe cleaner antennas and the straw. I used the straw to make the yarn-wrapped bee into a puppet. Using a hot glue gun, glue the paper straw to the back of your bee. These are the only two pieces I used hot glue to secure the parts of my bee.

Tips for making this cute bumble bee craft

• No googly eyes.
  • Make eyes by cutting a circle from white construction paper and a smaller circle from black construction paper. Then, glue them both together to make the bee’s eyes.
  • You could also cut a small circle from white card stock and make a dot with a black marker on the white paper to create the eye. 
• Bee Puppet. Add a paper straw, Popsicle stick, or a stick from the yard and glue it to the back of the bee. 
• Hot Glue to Secure. The only two pieces that required hot glue to remain secure were the pipe cleaner antennas and the straw. 
• Missing Craft Supplies. No worries. Get your child involved in hunting for your missing supplies. Get creative. What makes you think cute bee smile or bumblebee wings? 
  • Bee’s smile: pink ribbon, tissue paper, yarn, or a smile cut out of paper
  • Bee’s antennas and stinger: ribbon, pipe cleaners, yarn, sticks from the yard, or cardboard cutouts.
  • Bee’s wings: newspaper, pages from a book, ribbon, tissue paper, cutouts from construction paper or cardboard, or recycled plastic.
  • Puppet stick: paper straw, popsicle stick, cardboard cutout, stick from the yard, etc.

Tips for crafting with Little Kids while making this yarn wrapped bee craft for kids

• Getting Started. If your child is having difficulty getting started with wrapping the yarn, tape the end of the yarn onto the center of the cardboard circle to stabilize it. You could also make notches along the edges of the cardboard. This gives them a visual target to encourage them to thread the yarn into each slot.
• Liquid Glue. If your little one is not able to squeeze the bottle of glue, squeeze a little bit of the glue onto a plate and allow them to paint the glue on with a paintbrush.
• Getting Frustrated. If you notice your child becoming frustrated with the task. Then, redirect. Allow them to glue pieces of yarn to the cardboard. Or let them use washable yellow paint and black paint to finger paint a bee onto the cardboard circle.

Recycled Materials for Crafts

My goal on this site is to use recycled materials, craft scraps, or items found in nature to make cute affordable crafts with your kids. While there is nothing wrong with buying craft supplies, my goal is to keep our craft budget low. I expect that when my girls get older, we will need a larger craft budget. But for now, I want to teach them to make use of things we can find at home and to repurpose items rather than toss them in the trash.

25 Recycled Materials to Collect for Kid Crafts:

1. craft scraps such as leftover pieces from crafts (paper, yarn, pipe cleaners, fabric, etc.)
2. cardboard boxes
3. plastic containers
4. tin cans
5. egg cartons
6. toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls
7. newspapers, old books, junk mail, and old magazines
8. gift wrap and tissue paper
9. baby wipe containers
10. plastic bottles
11. spray bottles
12. Kleenex tissue box
13. broken crayons
14. plastic jugs
15. shoeboxes
16. jar lids and jar rings
17. milk cartons
18. bubble wrap
19. glass jars
20. bottle caps
21. greeting cards
22. cookie tins
23. t-shirts
24. coffee cans
25. paper sacks

15 Nature Items to collect from the outdoors for kids crafts:

1. sticks
2. pine cones
3. flowers
4. rocks
5. leaves
6. tree bark
7. acorns and acorn caps
8. dirt
9. sand
10. seashells
11. moss
12. evergreen twigs
13. tall grass
14. seaweed
15. driftwood

Mud Pies with Sprinkles was created in January 2023. I cannot wait to share more crafts with you. I’ll come back and link all the fun crafts that we can make using recycled materials and items found in nature.

Thanks for Stopping by!

Finally, I want to thank you for stopping by! I have many more bee crafts coming soon. Please say Hi in the comment section and tell me your favorite simple spring crafts for kids. Are you looking forward to spring? There is nothing better than getting outside on a sunny day and finding a shady spot to do crafts with my little kids. I always find being outdoors inspiring and calming. I hope you find an opportunity to create something beautiful today.

– With Great Joy, Katie

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