Make a cute cardboard tube grasshopper using a paper towel roll!

This craft is part of an Insects from recyclables blog hop. Check out the links at the end of this article for more fun insect craft ideas by my blogging buddies.

We happened to capture a little (or some might say BIG) grasshopper in our lounge room last week. To be clear I didn’t capture him myself, my husband trapped it over a book with a plastic container late at night and left it on the kitchen table for the kids to find in the morning. 

The girls were very interested to watch him in a habitat we set up inside a Critter Keeper (it’s only temporary – we will keep him for a week or so before letting him go).

Now I won’t lie and say I love insects – I don’t! I find them a bit scary but when they’re safely contained inside a habitat with a lid on top I don’t mind them quite so much. Check out this little guy’s camera-ready smile:

Keeping a grasshopper for observation

It’s very simple to set up a habitat like this one. We put a layer of wood shavings in the base of the container and added some garden leaves. We regularly give it a spritz with a water sprayer though the lid so that the grasshopper won’t die of thirst. If you add a dish of water it becomes a drowning hazard. Grasshoppers eat nearly any plants so feeding them is easy, but their favourites are grass and grass-like plants.

Miss K took the critter keeper in to school so she could show him off to her class and the kids were all fascinated to see one so close-up!

How to make a cardboard tube grasshopper

It only takes a few simple materials to make a cardboard tube grasshopper. Your kids may need some help with the construction of the body.

You will need:

• 1 long cardboard tube
• 3 shorter cardboard tubes (or long ones cut in half)
• 4 Pipe cleaners
• Scissors
• Stapler
• something sharp and pointy to poke holes for the legs (I’ve used a mathematical instrument, a skewer was not quite sharp enough)
• Paints to decorate
• Googly eyes and a felt scrap for the mouth
• Hot glue gun

How to:

1. Flatten your paper towel tube
2. Trim ends into a curved shape, then trim the larger off-cut into a rounded piece for the face
3. Staple face to body
4. Poke six holes for legs
5. Thread with pipe cleaners
6. Flatten small cardboard tube and trim a long triangular piece from each side
7. Fold middle pieces and trim into skinny long pieces.
8. Staple one triangle piece and one skinny long piece onto each back pipe cleaner (the leg will be longer than the length of the pipe cleaner). Repeat for middle legs.
9. Make the front legs smaller.
10. Bend legs into position
11. Paint and decorate. Attach antennae with a hot glue gun.

Did you notice my error? I’ve given my cardboard tube grasshopper 4 long back legs instead of two (which is more like a cricket). If you like things to be accurate you can follow the above steps and create four short legs at the front and two powerful long ones at the back instead.

This craft has given me a whole new appreciation for an insect I would have otherwise steered clear of. Do your kids like to collect and observe bugs?

Other insect crafts in this blog hop

Don’t forget to check out the other insect crafts in this series…

How gorgeous are they?

• Egg Carton Bee by Buggy and Buddy
• Milk Jug Dragonfly Craft by Kids Craft Room
• Recycled Bee Craft by I Heart Crafty Things
• Butterfly Wall Hanging by Make it Your Own
• Recycled CD Ladybug by I Heart Arts’n Crafts

More cardboard tube creatures kids can make:

• Create a pretty cardboard tube swan
• Make an adorable bunny for Easter 
• This cardboard tube fox turned out so cute!
• Make a cardboard tube Frilled-neck lizard
• What about a Green Sheep from Where is the Green Sheep by Mem Fox?
• Or (my personal favourite) some adorable cardboard tube dinosaurs

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