My daughter loves bugs, worms and snails. She loves reading about insects and she is not in the least squeamish about handling them. She always tries to feed her insects and snails by preparing them “tasty salads” and cannot understand why they always try to scoot away from her. I have to say that I don’t necessarily share her enthusiasm. I dislike spiders most, but big bugs don’t really make me happy either, especially if they look 
like cockroaches. But I am trying to suck it up for my daughter’s sake and encourage her interest in living things. I do draw a line at her desire to bring bugs inside, and hope that her wish for the spider in her room so she can watch it spin its web will not come true. One of her favorite books recently is Insect World from A Child’s First Library of Learning. Seriously, this series is awesome – I think they should reprint it. I am learning a lot of new things about insects from Anna now.
When I asked Anna which bug is her favorite, she said immediately, Firefly! So I thought that it would be nice to make one. In fact it was kind of “2 in 1” craft – first we made a butterfly with a coloring page and a craft stick. Anna reluctantly went along after I promised to her that in the evening this butterfly will “magically” transform itself into a firefly. And it did… with a help of a glow stick and a rubber band. Very exciting craft, especially since it officially delayed bedtime by about 30 minutes :) This craft could also work with fictional books like The Very Lonely Firefly.
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11 comments:
Oh how fun. I think the "transformation" is the best part.
I remember trying to catch fireflies when I was young! They were so magical. I wish we lived in the countryside during these times when I look back on my childhood with nostalgia.
I don't mind small spiders but I'm not fond of beetles, especially red ones. They call them love bugs but they don't look too lovey. K loves all insects and animals. She thinks they all are beautiful! I used to be that way as a kid and I cherish those moments when I was brave enough to touch daddy long legs and worms! But I'm grown squeamish as I've grown older. It's interesting how our views change....sort of how kids marvel at the sign of snow and the first thing we, adults think about is the commute and needing to shovel snow.
Caught a typo...I've instead of I'm
Cool craft! I'm not a fan of bugs, but I try to hide my squeamishness.
Oh, I like the idea of the transformation, we did glowsticks for fireflies too, but I didn't think to do this.
I love the magical transformation at the end!
I'm with you on bugs. The classroom I inherited when I taught high school in CA was infested with cockroaches, it was awful. I spent three entire days scrubbing that room, and thankfully they went away (probably to some other teacher's room)!
Love your firefly and how you took it through the transformation.
I am so with you on my dislike of bugs spiders especially. I have to really make myself work hard at this because Selena thinks they are so neat.
My children love bugs! Especially MacGyver. I've had to get over my squeamishness because he's always collecting something creepy crawly. His sister is following right in his footsteps.
Thought your little girl would like the FREE printable book I made for MacGyver:
http://waddleeahchaa.com/2010/04/27/is-this-an-insect-free-printable-book/
jeannine
waddleeahchaa.com
I confess to letting Kiddo explore the more creepy bugs by himself.
That sounds like fun!
Glow sticks are awesome. When attached to a paper insect firefly - even better! My son wants absolutely nothing to do with bugs and has a huge fit if he sees one inside. Trying to work on the bug thing with him. I'm sure someday soon he'll be bringing them inside, and I'll be wishing he was still fearful.
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