Diwali Style Lanterns

 

These Indian style lanterns are inspired by the colourful diya candles which are a traditional part of India's Diwali festival.

My grade three students created these teardrop shaped diya lanterns with air drying clay. Plastic gemstones and glass beads were pressed into the clay when soft. Once the clay had dried out the lanterns were painted with bright, Indian inspired colours and sprinkled with glitter.

When the paint was dry, I gave each child a candle for their lantern and we lit them up.
The children found this quite magical and despite it being 35 degrees (95 degrees for you Americans), they felt the need to warm their hands by the flames until I got scared and blew out all the candles.

Chinese-Style Lanterns

 

Inspiration: Chinese paper lanterns, 

The Chinese Lantern Festival.

The students decorated the template I gave them for the lantern with images associated with Chinese culture (i.e - Chinese dragons, calligraphy, cherry blossoms etc). The template was cut out and glued to form a box shape. We made the top and bottom from cardboard and pop sticks and created a tassle with coloured wool and a large gold bead. A handle for the top was bent from a piece of wire. These made a great display for Chinese New Year a couple of years ago.