So if the skies were lighting up I figured we'd light it up down here. Here's what we'd need:

1 "Super Battery"

1 length of wire

1 roll of electrical tape

1 pickle jar

1 package of mechanical pencil lead

Hey. What do you know? I have all that stuff! Well, except the "Super Battery." Never fear, though, I've got eight D-Cell batteries and if you run those suckers in serial you're ready to do SCIENCE!

Zip. Zap. Smoke and LIGHT! Success!

I'm not sure the kids really cared except that it was SCIENCE and that's enough for me.