building an led flashlight for kids

I want to built an inexpensive flashlight as a project for 6 year old Cub Scouts. My intent is to use a piece of wood or pvc pipe with a couple of AA batteries, an LED bulb and some type of on/off switch. I know nothing about electronics and my question is what is the best combination of bulb/battery to use for a light that will last a few hours.

Also considering a couple of bulbs so they can switch between colors.

I'm need to keep this below a couple of dollars each.

Any suggestions how to wire this easily without soldering?

I'll be making about 10 of these. Any suggestions where to get parts?

Thanks in advance for any tips!

For less than a couple of dollars you can get them each a 2D flashlight with batteries.

If you want to make it a learning project for the kids, you might want to keep it to an incandescent bulb, leads, battery(ies), and a simple switch. It might be easier to put it out on a board rather than trying to make a flashlight. This also increase the possibility that you'll be able to answer their questions, since you profess to know nothing about electronics. The project above is somewhat similar to what I got in grammar school ... um ... well a long long long time ago, but it was in the 5th grade so I must have been about 10. I thought Cub Scouts started at the age of 8? You should be able to get all the parts that you'll need at a local hardware store (better yet, get them to donate it )

41fool, welcome to CPF!

This definitely can be done by younger Cub Scout-age kids. I had my son's Webelos's group build LED flashlights with 2AA batteries (red or amber LED's will match the VF without needing a resistor), some pieces of wire, some wooden ice cream sticks (tongue supressors work too), and *loads* of masking tape.

This was part of the Engineering badge, BTW. I initially did an intro section about electricity and circuits and then it was "open doors" for them to create their own flashlight design, wiring, etc. A couple of them came with really creative designs (stars, one made a cube, another one made an airplane-shaped light, etc.)

If the kids and parents in your Den are a bit more daring (and skillful), try this also:
http://www.e-scoutcraft.com/film_can/led_flashlight.html

I decided that'd be too much for our Cub Scouts, but my son and I did build a couple of those on our own, and used them as reading lights for the longest time (those 9V batts last a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time with that setup).

Have fun!

Have you heard of LED throwies? They are not flashlights but yeah the do provide some light.


http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=6

Make sure the scouts use thm responsibly though...