Make a Bat Lantern

🎂 6 + years ⏱️ 45 min 📍 Anywhere ⭐ active

When it gets dark outside, bats take flight and you can create your own! A lantern that shines like the moon and looks like a bat. You only need paper, oil, construction paper, and a little imagination. While crafting, you'll learn how light shines through paper, how to create shapes, and how to glue everything together so it stays put. In the end, you'll have your own bat, ready for the lantern parade.

What you'll need

A4 sheet of paper
Colored pencils
Black construction paper
Some oil and a pastry brush
Paper towels
A pair of scissors
White acrylic marker
Pipe cleaners
Light stick

How it works

Color an A4 sheet of paper with bright colors. Then, brush it with a little oil. Dab off the excess with paper towels and let it dry. This will make it transparent like lantern paper.
Roll the paper from the short sides until it forms a tube. Glue it together. At the top and bottom, glue black construction paper strips around it to make it sturdy.
Take another A4 sheet. Cut it in half. Each piece will be a wing. Fold both halves like an accordion, slightly open them, and glue one side to the side of your lantern.
Cut out a head with ears and feet from construction paper. Draw a face on it with a white marker and glue on two googly eyes. Glue the head to the bottom of your lantern, as your bat will hang upside down. Glue the feet to the top of your lantern.
Make two small holes at the top. Thread a pipe cleaner through and twist the ends tightly. Then attach your light stick to it, so your bat can go out and shine with you!
Maybe it will fly away in your imagination. Over rooftops, through the night, past the moon. And you know: With your hands, your head, and your patience, you can make things shine.