Firefly Craft

Do you love The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle? My students always did! We loved it here in our home library too. 

It is a great shared read when you are learning about time.

  • talk about day/night
It was night and some fireflies danced around the moon. Eric Carle
  • talk about the sun coming up and the changing placement of the sun on each page
  • talk about the sun position at your school and think about making a sun dial with your students
  • talk about how we have set activities at different time - e.g. breakfast in the story 
  • talk about the progression of time through the day and the time it takes to do things - this is beautifully illustrated in the text on the final pages as ladybug flies along the whale
  • look at the clocks and how the hands change on each page
  • ask a student to tell you the time on each page
  • look at the clock and the words for the time on each page


You can also review compound words as you read the text:
  • fireflies
  • ladybug
  • breakfast
  • somebody
  • anyway
Have your students make a firefly for a classroom display. There is a template in the Coloring Club

  • paint them
  • cut and assemble with glue
  • use crayons to add extra wing detail


For this display I also used the moon clock from our tracing pack


Once you've created a math display, use it for language-based brain breaks. Talk with your student about:
  • how many fireflies are on the board
  • how many wings
  • how can we make counting the wings easier
  • what time each clock is telling
  • point to the clocks in order of the time
  • what else would be flying/awake at night

If you'd like more ideas for teaching time find a growing collection through the website

If you're not yet in the Coloring Club, we'd love to have you!