Kid Craft: Paper Lanterns

The mom’s group that Haley and I belong to try to do fun cultural activities when ever we can. Our friend Tina, who grew up in Germany, told us about Martinstag. She said it was her favorite holiday as a kid. Children walk door to door with paper lanterns and sing songs. People give them treats or money as a reward for the songs. It sounds kind of like a second Halloween.

Martinstag is November 11th and even though we won’t be going door to door we though it would be fun to do a night walk with the lanterns. We came up with a simple safe lantern that out toddlers can help make.

To make your own you’ll need:

a white lunch sack

squares of colored tissue paper

a glue stick

hole punch

a glow stick

string

a stick

 

 

 

Let your little one glue tissue paper all over the bag. The more colorful the better.

When they finish with the gluing (or just get bored) send them off to find a stick while you make the bag glow. Start by folding the top over an inch and punch 3 holes across the top.

Open the bag and thread the string through the bottom center hole on one side of the bag then through the glow stick and then through the other bottom center hole.

Fold the bag over and feed the string though the remaining center hole.

Then thread opposite ends of the string through the remain holes as shown.

When your kid returns with the stick tie the ends of the string to the stick.

When you are ready for you evening stroll you can break the glow stick through the bag and give it a shake.

Happy Martinstag!