Activity Overview
Whether you are in cooler months dreaming of summer or you are right in the midst of summer's glory, you will want to create these fantastic Plastic Egg Lightning Bugs. I understand that some places in the world do not have fireflies, however viewing and trying to catch them is simply fascinating in the Northeast. Now you can enjoy these vibrant and tantalizing insects anywhere in the world.
The kids really enjoyed making these with some of our plastic eggs and inexpensive battery operated tea lights that you can pick up at dollar stores. These adorable bugs light up which made them so much fun when the kids made forts, had camp outs, or when they went to bed at night. We had a whole lightning bug colony in the house and even out in some of the flower pots and flower beds.
Materials Needed
- Plastic eggs
- Battery operated tea lights
- Pipe cleaners
- Duck Tape
- Scissors
- Push Pin
- Sharpie Markers
- Googly eyes
- Hot glue gun
How to Make It
- Turn on the battery operated tea light and insert it into the plastic egg and close the egg.
- Using a pushpin, have an adult carefully poke three holes on each lower side of the egg while holding the egg horizontally. This works best by turning the pushpin and working it through as you turn. These holes will be where you insert the pipe cleaners for the legs to give you an idea for placement.
- Next, use the same technique with a pushpin to make two more holes at the top front portion of the egg for the insertion of the antennae.
- Cut the pipe cleaner into 2 1/2 inch segments. You will need 6 for the legs and 2 for the antennae.
- Insert each pipe cleaner wire through it's proper hole. For the legs...give them two bends and you can curl the antennae by wrapping the ends around a pencil.
- Use your scissors to cut out some wing shapes and stick onto the top of the egg.If you want your wings to hang off of your egg a bit, you can place another piece of duck tape on the sticky underside that is hanging off to keep it from sticking to the egg.
- Use your sharpie marker to draw two eyes and a mouth on your egg.
- If you like, you can use a hot glue gun to affix googly eyes to the face of your insect.
