🪲 Common eastern firefly report template
Three versions, one page each. Print the one for your child’s grade. The facts come from the common eastern firefly page, every number with its source.
Grades 1–2
My report: the common eastern firefly
Photinus pyralis · Grades 1–2
| Length | not checked yet: look it up! |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | not checked yet: look it up! |
| Weight | not checked yet: look it up! |
| Top speed | not checked yet: look it up! |
| How long it lives | 0.06 to 0.08 years |
Read about it
Fireflies are beetles that glow. On summer nights they flash a light on their tails. The flashes are how they talk to each other.
It lives in:
It eats:
The coolest thing I learned:
Where my facts came from
- National Park Service, Congaree National Park, home.nps.gov/cong/learn/nature/synchronous-fireflies-at-congaree.htm, checked 2026-10-30
Grades 3–4
My report: the common eastern firefly
Photinus pyralis · Grades 3–4
| Length | not checked yet: look it up! |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | not checked yet: look it up! |
| Weight | not checked yet: look it up! |
| Top speed | not checked yet: look it up! |
| How long it lives | 0.06 to 0.08 years |
Read about it
A firefly makes light inside its body, and the light is cool, so it does not burn. Each kind of firefly flashes its own pattern. A male flies and flashes, and a female answers from the grass with her own flash, so they can find each other.
Where it lives (its habitat):
What it eats:
How its body helps it live there:
My favorite fact:
A question I still have:
Where my facts came from
- National Park Service, Congaree National Park, home.nps.gov/cong/learn/nature/synchronous-fireflies-at-congaree.htm, checked 2026-10-30
Grades 5–6
My report: the common eastern firefly
Photinus pyralis · Grades 5–6
| Length | not checked yet: look it up! |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | not checked yet: look it up! |
| Weight | not checked yet: look it up! |
| Top speed | not checked yet: look it up! |
| How long it lives | 0.06 to 0.08 years |
Read about it
A firefly makes light with a chemical called luciferin, plus oxygen and a helper called an enzyme. Almost all the energy turns into light and very little into heat, which is far better than a light bulb. Baby fireflies, called larvae, live in damp soil and leaf litter, and many of them glow too, which is why people call them glowworms. Fireflies are fewer in some places because meadows are lost and bright lights confuse their flash signals, so turning off outdoor lights at night and leaving a patch of long grass can help.
Habitat and range: where on Earth, and what the place is like:
Diet: what it eats, and what might eat it:
Adaptations: two ways its body or habits help it survive:
Is it in danger? Why or why not?:
Compare it with another animal you know:
Bibliography: write each source below as site, page title, date checked:
Where my facts came from
- National Park Service, Congaree National Park, home.nps.gov/cong/learn/nature/synchronous-fireflies-at-congaree.htm, checked 2026-10-30