Apple Stamp

• Provide your students with some yellow and black poster boards as well as apples and paint to represent the three colors of the traffic signal: green, yellow and red. Add some glue and a paper plate for each color, and they will be ready to make an apple stamp traffic light. Cut out rectangles from the yellow and black poster board, making the yellow slightly smaller. Attach them with the glue. Use one paper plate for each color of paint. Help your students cut one of each apple color in half, and put each on its plate of the same color paint. Finally, encourage each student to dip the apple into its same color paint and stamp it onto the poster board. Teach them what each color means.
  
  

Light Switch Fun

• Help your students become less afraid of the dark by embracing a craft in which they each make a cover for a light switch at home. All that's needed are some craft sticks, a piece or sheet of foam, some glue, double-sided tape, and as many decorations as you can find. Keep a utility or craft knife nearby and use it yourself. Start by cutting each student a piece of foam that will fit over a light switch plate. Help your students find the spot where the light switch will come through, then cut the holes for them. After laying the craft sticks side by side on the foam piece, cut the middle stick in half and trim as needed to let the switch poke through. Glue the craft sticks, let them dry and trim again as needed. The last part should be the most fun: painting and decorating the sticks. Use buttons, stickers or let them paint or draw their own designs.
  
  

Oil and Paint

• Help your students learn that light can shine through some surfaces by encouraging them to paint a tempera light picture. Provide them some safe tempera paint, cotton swabs, clear salad oil or olive oil, and manila paper. Let the children dip the swabs into paint containers and make their own designs on the manila paper. Let the paint dry, then let the students spread the oil over the entire surface of their pictures. Surprise them by saying that light will make the picture show when it is hung in a window.
  
  

At Home or School

• Parents or teachers can take the crafting down to its simplest level by showing children how light reacts to different surfaces. For instance, put a couple of chairs together, then completely cover them with blankets so it is dark. Crawl under the blankets with a flashlight for each of you, and craft your own animals or other objects by shining the lights around your "cave." Alternatively, use mirrors or shadows to make your own shapes. Help your child shine a mirror around the room to see where the light reflects; or, walk outside on a sunny day and see what you can make from the dark shadows of your hands and feet when you let the sun shine on them.