Lantern Walk

Our school's lantern walk in celebration of Martinmas was yesterday. Nuri's first walk - attached to me in the Ergo carrier (which I *love*) & Noah's last walk as a grades student as he will be in high school next year. My students made simple lanterns using a sheet of watercolor paper. They drew on moons, stars, suns and shooting stars. I cut the shapes out with a paper knife and the students then glued colored wax paper over the cut-outs and finger-knit a handle for carrying.

Very simple lanterns, but they looked so pretty when lit! My students also insisted on making a mini version of this lantern for Nuri. Very sweet. I carried it for her, of course. I ended up not going with the idea my students had of attaching the lantern to a pacifier...

These are the lanterns Nathan's class created. Nifty construction, eh? I have no pictures of the walk as I tend to just want to enjoy the silent walking...

Martinmas

Our lantern walk on Friday was "rained out," so today was the rain date. It was the warmest lantern walk ever - a short sleeves & shorts kinda day with temperatures in the low 70s. My 2nd grade performed a Martinmas song & I told the story of St. Martin & The Robbers.

From left... A lantern wet-felted over a small balloon. A recycled can with hammered holes - Freeze water inside before pounding as to avoid can denting. Line with wax paper if desired. This was our 2nd grade lantern project. So loud & awakening, but so much fun especially for the boys and the cholerics. The 5th graders carved gourds - fitting with the study of Botany. The 6th graders used Chinese take-out boxes and made lanterns with the moon, sun & constellations punched in.

The 1st graders glued tissue papers onto glass jars. The round ones are the traditional glue & tissue paper over a balloon type lanterns created by kindergarteners, I believe. The blue one with cathedral windows was created by 4th graders.

Just more lanterns. :-)

Nathan's gourd lit there on the right. It was a smokey kind of lantern walk. Some lil' fuzzies inside the lantern burned down & it started smoking.

Noah's 8th grade had created torches. For some reason the wax on the torch spread downward, further & further, thus it ended up on the ground as a safety precaution.