Activity:
Moroccan Hanging Lanterns
Hanging lamps made from stained glass and wrought iron and brass have been around Morocco for centuries. Wealthy Moroccans used to hang them from entranceways of palaces to show their status, but now everyone can enjoy these beautiful decorations. Your child can create her own construction paper version of these lanterns to give her room an Arabian nights feel!
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What You Need:
- Construction paper
- Colored tissue paper
- Glue stick
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Craft knife
- Cutting mat
- Clear tape
- Yarn
- Hole punch
What You Do:
- Help your child draw the shape of a Moroccan lamp on a sheet of construction paper. Traditionally, the lamps are shaped like a rectangle with domes on the top and bottom, but you can let your child exercise her imagination and design her own lamp.
- Encourage her to cut out the lamp and trace its shape onto another sheet of construction paper. Stack the drawing on top of three or four sheets of paper and cut along the pencil lines to create many lamps at once.
- Now let's work on the glass windows! Have her draw windows on the paper lanterns in whatever design she likes, making sure that they're not too close to the edge. For traditional Moroccan style, shape them like archways. Stack the lanterns on top of a cutting mat and, with your supervision, cut out the windows with a craft knife.
- Cut rectangles of paper tissue in different colors and glue them to the back of the lanterns over the windows. When light shines through, they look like pretty stained glass!
- Punch holes in the top of each lamp and string them on a long piece of yarn. Space them out evenly and tape the back of each lamp to the yarn to hold it in place.
- Hang the Moroccan lamps in her window to transform her room into an Arabian palace!
