How To Make An Awesome Plastic Bottle Firefly That Glows

In the city, we don’t get to see real fireflies. This glowing plastic bottle firefly craft is a fun way to show my kids what they look like when night falls!

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Now that winter is in full swing, it means that us Floridians can step outside without the fear of melting when our feet hit the pavement! This is a welcoming distraction after so many hot and humid summer and autumn days and we are thrilled to be doing things that we can’t always enjoy in the hot Florida sun.

This means that now almost all of our days end with:

evening bike rides without the kids getting overheated,
eat s’mores around a bonfire without sweating to death,
and spending weekend evenings outside with our friends.

Sounds lovely, right?

To celebrate the cooler nighttime temps, I wanted to make a fun craft with the kids like this glowing plastic bottle firefly that they could use when we go on evening walks or play hide and seek in the house.

A recycled bottle glowing firefly project for kids may sound a bit bizarre to some, but when I was younger, we lived in New York and I loved watching and catching tons of fireflies. But now that we’re in the heart of our city in South Florida, fireflies are unfortunately never seen. So, we made our own glowing fireflies so that my boys can learn about them and I can have some nostalgia!

How To Make An Awesome Plastic Bottle Firefly That Glows

Materials

Plastic bottle
Tissue paper
Mod Podge
Small googly eyes
Glow sticks
Pipe cleaners
Water
Paint

Directions

Step 1: Cut out tissue paper as desired. We cut out tiny squares and triangles to get practice using scissors and talk about shapes with my youngest. If your older children prefer a perfect firefly, cut a large rectangle and wrap it around the middle of the bottle.

Step 2: Assist your little one by holding the tissue paper down while they paint over it with Mod Podge. This is better than glue because the glue spots will show through when the Glow sticks are activated.

Step 3: Glue eyes on the bottle cap. You can also draw black eyes with a sharpie on if you don’t have googly ones.

Step 4: Paint the bottle cap any color desired. We kept the theme of the same color as the glow stick and tissue paper each child chose.

Step 5: Add antennas by wrapping one pipe cleaner around the bottle cap and twisting the top in a circular motion. My middle guy wanted his straight up!

Step 6: Crack and shake glow stick, insert in the bottle, and fill up with water. Ensure you seal the cap tight! I let my baby twist the cap and well…that didn’t work 😄

What other insects or critters have you turned glow sticks into?

Gina