Use this recipe for salt dough to make simple candle holders, a pretty and easy Diwali crafts for children.
Salt dough candle holder Diwali craft
QUICK RESOURCE >> Download your ready-made Diwali unit here
Will you be celebrating Diwali with your children next month? I think observing festivals from many different cultures is a wonderful way to introduce kids to the wider world.
The festival of lights is taking place on Wednesday November 11th 2015 and a creative way to mark the occasion by making some salt dough candle holders.
>> See all our Diwali activities and crafts for children.
We started by mixing up a batch of our easy salt dough recipe.
One cup water, two cups flour and two cups salt and you’re done.
(You can download this recipe, and more play dough recipes and ideas, in The Homemade Play Dough Recipe Book.)
Then we took a ball of salt dough each to make our candle holders.
The children used their thumbs to press out a hollow in the centre of their candle holder, making sure it was the right size to fit our tea candles.
We pressed some sequins into the dough of some of our candle holders, and then baked them all at Gas 1/2, 120C, 250F for about 3 hours.
Using a fish slice/spatula makes it easier to pick up them up and place them on the baking tray.
Once the salt dough candle holders were cool we painted a layer of glitter paint over the surface of the sequined ones, to add some more shimmer and help hold the sequins in place.
On our other salt dough candle holders we painted a layer of gold paint and sprinkled on gold glitter while the paint was still wet.
Download your ready-made Diwali kit
Download our Play Academy ready-made Diwali unit and you’ll have everything you need to lead a Diwali celebration with your children. In this set of Diwali lesson plans your children can:
:: learn about Diwali: it’s meaning, it’s traditions and how it’s celebrated
:: make Rama and Sita puppets and act out their story
:: create firework paintings or diya lanterns
:: make rangoli designs
:: explore a five senses Indian food taste test
Bonus Diwali thematic unit printables
The Play Academy’s thematic units come with practical printables that make the lessons more engaging for your children and easier for you to teach.
No need to go searching for printables to accompany your lessons, they’re all included when you download your chosen unit.
In this Diwali Unit you’ll receive these bonus printables:
:: Diwali vocabulary cards to re-cap knowledge and develop language skills
:: a Lotus flower colouring sheet and rangoli template for arts and crafts
:: a Diya lantern colouring sheet
:: Monkey army counting cards for math activities
:: a Diwali taste test record sheet to explore the foods of the festival
How to download this Diwali thematic unit
You can download this unit along with over 50 more from NurtureStore’s Play Academy.
If you are already of the Play Academy, you can download this unit straight away from our Library here.
If you are not yet a member, find out more and choose your first unit here. Your teaching is about to get a whole lot easier!
Those candleholders are great! They look fun to make, too!
my daughter made hers today @ playgroup
What a wonderful way to celebrate! We will probably have Indian food that week, anyway, since my husband was away for my birthday and I always pick Indian food on my birthday!
Oooh my son made similar ones last year at nursery and LOVED every minute of it! And Salt Dough is so wonderfully versatile. Love your final ones, they look great!
Maggy
Those candleholders are great! Great craft for the kids, love it!
Yey Diwali, I looked at Rangoli but couldn’t think how to do it with a 2 year old. The lentil on plates is a great idea. I may give it a go. Thanks
Hi The Monko – we’d love to see a picture if you do. 🙂
Google rangoli pattern and print off, let 2 yr old put glue in 1 area only and sprinkle with coloured sand r glitter, repeat process until pattern is filled, remember to do 1 part at a time. Brill results I been doing it for years with my minded toddlers.
What a pretty gift they would make! Thanks for linking up!
those look great
Thanks 🙂
Hello
This is an excellent idea.But can you please tell me that how did you paint the glitters on it?And also is it safe to bake it in the oven with the beads on?
Thanks
Hi Smiles. We used a paint that had glitter in it and painted all over the top of the candle holder with it. We didn’t use any beads, but rather plastic sequins, and the oven is at a very low temperature.
There is a previous question regarding this subject but I wanted to ask it again because all instructions I have read for making salt dough models say that they should be varnished afterwards. Surely varnish is highy flammable and not suited to objects which will be used as a candle holder? Yet there are many examples given on the internet about how to make a holder, all which mention varnishing the item first.
Does varnish lose its flammableness when it dries?
What a lovely way to learn about another culture. Thanks for the inspiration Cathy! 🙂
How many candle holders were you able to get out of one batch of dough?
Hi Erin, we made five, but we used the rest of the dough for other projects. I think you’d get at least 8, maybe even 10?
what does Gas 1/2 mean?
Do I bake at 250F?
I’m worried the sequins will catch fire in the oven…
I found the answer! What a great project! I can’t wait to try this!
Yes, Gas 1/2 is the equivalent of 250F. Our sequins were fine, but you have any concerns then you can always glue the sequins on after the candle holder has been baked.