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nocturnal animal crafts for kids

Nocturnal Animal Crafts for Kids

We’ve rounded up 6 of our favorite nocturnal animal crafts here. Enjoy them for Halloween or any time of the year!

  1. Firefly Jar Craft
  2. Bat Painting
  3. Golf Tee Porcupine
  4. Glowing Eyes Art
  5. Glow in the Dark Firefly
  6. Bat Hat

1. Firefly Jar Craft

Firefly craft

Everyone knows how fireflies got their name, but many people don’t know how the insects produce their signature glow. Fireflies have dedicated light organs that are located under their abdomens. The insects take in oxygen and, inside special cells, combine it with a substance called luciferin to produce light with almost no heat. Firefly light is usually intermittent, and flashes in patterns that are unique to each species. Each blinking pattern is an optical signal that helps fireflies find potential mates! Create a swarm of glowing fireflies with this fun firefly jar craft.

Firefly jar craft

Supplies:

  • Glass jar
  • Glow in the dark paint
  • Black marker
  • Paint brush

Instructions:

Firefly jar craft

Step 1: Paint small dots of paint inside the jar.

Firefly craft

Step 2: Take your marker, and on the outside of the jar, draw little firefly wings and heads on your paint dots.

Firefly craft

Step 3: Take into a closet or dark room and watch them glow!

2. Bat Painting

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Whether you are looking for a nocturnal animal craft or the perfect Halloween craft, we got your covered with this awesome bat silhouette art project.

Supplies:

  • Black construction paper
  • White paint
  • Spray bottle

Instructions:

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Step 1: Cut a bat shape out of paper. We folded a piece of paper in half to cut out the bat so it would be symmetrical.

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Step 2: Put white paint diluted with some water into a spray bottle.

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Step 3: Place the bat on the black construction paper and begin spraying the paper. The end result is the silhouette of a bat in a starry night sky!

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Halloween Crafts

3. Golf Tee Porcupine

Porcupine Craft

Turn a styrofoam egg and some golf tees into an adorable porcupine! This golf tee porcupine is a prickly nocturnal animal craft that makes a fun gift for the golf player in your life.

Porcupine Craft

Supplies:

  • Styrofoam oval
  • Golf tees
  • Paint
  • Paintbrush
  • Googly eyes
  • Glue

Instructions:

Porcupine Craft

Step 1: Cut the Styrofoam oval in half.

Porcupine Craft

Step 2: Paint your porcupine. We painted our with a green head, an orange body, and with green dots.

Porcupine Craft

Step 3: Glue on the google eyes.

Porcupine Craft

Step 4: Stick the golf tees into the body to make the quills.

Porcupine Craft

4. Glowing Eyes Art

Halloween Crafts

Nocturnal animals are more active at night than during the day. These animals sleep during the day, often in a burrow or den. They have special adaptations that help them survive in the dark. Over millions of years, these animals have developed traits that help them survive in the darkness. Nocturnal animals may have larger ears to hear better, bigger eyes to see better, and body parts that glow in the night. Create your own big-eyed nocturnal animal art with our fun nocturnal animal crafts!

Supplies:

  • Black and yellow/or grey construction paper
  • Tacky glue
  • Twigs
  • Google eyes
  • Silver glitter paint or silver glitter

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Instructions:

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Step 1: Paint the background of the black paper with silver glitter.

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Step 2: Break the twigs and glue them onto the paper.

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Step 3: Add google eyes around the twigs.

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Step 4: Cut out a moon and glue onto paper.

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5. Glow in the Dark Firefly

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Everyone knows how fireflies got their name, but many people don’t know how the insects produce their signature glow. Fireflies have dedicated light organs that are located under their abdomens. The insects take in oxygen and, inside special cells, combine it with a substance called luciferin to produce light with almost no heat. Firefly light is usually intermittent, and flashes in patterns that are unique to each species. Each blinking pattern is an optical signal that helps fireflies find potential mates! Make your own glow in the dark fireflies with this fun project.

Glow in the dark firefly craft

Supplies:

  • Black construction paper
  • Black pipe cleaner
  • Plastic spoon
  • Glow in the dark paint

Instructions:

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Step 1: Paint each spoon with glow in dark paint.

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Step 2: Cut two wings and one body per spoon.

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Step 3: Glue the body to the spoon, then glue the wings to the body. Cut 2 little antennae from the pipe cleaner and glue to the head.

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Step 4: Take into a closet or dark room and watch them glow!

6. Bat Hat

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Whether you are looking for a nocturnal animal craft or the perfect Halloween bat hat, we got your covered with this awesome bat hat project.

Halloween crafts

Supplies:

  • Stiff black felt
  • White felt
  • Tacky glue
  • Black stocking cap

Instructions:

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Step 1: Cut two bat wings and two bat ears out of the black felt.

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Step 2: Glue the wings and ears onto the stocking cap. Use clothes pins to secure on the hat while glue is setting.

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Step 3: Cut white eyes with black centers out of felt. Glue onto the front of the hat.

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Nocturnal Animals List:

African hunting dog • American Porcupine • Armadillo • Badger • Bat Beaver • Bush baby • Cat • Coyote • Deer • Deer mouse • Owl monkey • Firefly • Fish (SOME: flashlight fish, flying fish, lantern fish, viper fish, wandering albatross) • Flying squirrel • Fox (Red fox) • Frog (SOME: Asian flying frog) • Gecko (flying gecko and tokay gecko) • Gerbil • Ghost crabs • Green sea turtle • Hamster • Hare (snowshoe hare) • Hedgehog • Heron • Hippo • Hyenas • Kangaroo rat • Kangaroo • Kiwi • Koala • Leopard • Moth • Whippoorwill • Opossum • Owl • Pangolin • Raccoon • Rats • Rhinoceros • Skunk • Snake • Southern flying squirrel • Tiger • Toad (Asian climbing toad) • Weasel • Wolf • Wombat

More about nocturnal animals:

Nocturnal animals are more active at night than during the day. These animals sleep during the day, often in a burrow or den. They have special adaptations that help them survive in the dark. Over millions of years, these animals have developed traits that help them survive in the darkness. Nocturnal animals may have larger ears to hear better, bigger eyes to see better, and body parts that glow in the night.

You can also learn all about these creatures in our nocturnal animals activity box. Or, find other activities for kids on Facebook!

Join Green Kid Crafts today!

Monthly boxes come with award-winning Creativity and STEAM Science Kits (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) designed by experts around national standards to build confidence, flex creativity, and make kids smarter. All materials and instructions included, along with some fun extras! Each Discovery Box is created around an exciting new theme each month (think Outer Space, Nocturnal Animals, Backyard Science, Ocean, and Mad Scientist). You can cancel anytime.

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