Fireflies II

To end our camping theme, we sat around our pretend fire and told some ghost stories. (Remember the Teeny Tiny Woman?) Then I looked up and pretended to see a light flashing, and then more, and soon hundreds of flashing lights. The kids figured out that I was seeing fireflies! I already have a firefly craft that I love.

I attached them to flashlights and the kids could make them glow.

You can read about that craft here. But I decided I wanted to make it a little different this year. So I got glow-in-the-dark paint from Michaels and some plastic spoons. I used the same wings as my old craft, but changed the body into more of a peanut shape. And I got rid of the antennae. It was always a pain to cut those out anyway!

The kids glued the wings to the bottom of the firefly body.

Then they painted the spoon either yellow or green. I forgot to get a picture of this step, but I'm sure you can figure it out! During nap time, I gave all the spoons a second coat of paint so they would glow better. When dry, I used a glue dot to attach the body to the spoon.

And I also used a small, thin pipe cleaner to make antennae. I poked it through one end and back through on the other side of the head. Sometimes the spoon handle stuck out,

so I just took a scissors and snipped it off.

Here are some of the kids "charging" their fireflies in our bathroom (the only place that would get dark enough to see them glow).

I took a picture when the lights were off, but you couldn't see anything glowing. In person you could, though, and that's all that matters. They thought it was "so cool!"

Fun Fact: Some female fireflies can lay hundreds of eggs, and the eggs can give off a steady glow!