Diwali rangoli designs with colored salt

Diwali rangoli designs made with colored salt are a gorgeous sensory delight – and they’re really easy to make. Here’s how:  

 

 

Diwali rangoli patterns with colored salt

DIY colored salt is really easy to make.

All you need is some ordinary table salt and some paint.

We used craft/poster paint (sometimes called tempera paint), and squeezed a little into a jug of salt. Stir it all together to get an even color, and leave to dry over night.  

 

 

 

It’s really that easy, you can make vibrant colors, and we found that, once the salt had dried over night, none of the color came off on our hands as we played.

(The colored salt is perfect for learning spellings too – take a look at our salt tray writing)  

 

 

 

Rangoli are Indian art designs and are traditionally made at the Diwali festival (which is taking place on November 3rd 2013).

They’re usually made outdoors on pavements or outside houses, but for our mini rangoli patterns we’re making them on paper plates. This means each child can make a design of their own.

You can still display them outside if you’d like too, or if you are in a classroom, each child can take their own rangoli home with them.  

 

 

To make your rangoli, start by drawing out a design on a paper plate.

We found simple, bold designs were best – anything too detailed loses it’s impact when you come to add the salt.  

 

 

Then take each section of your design in turn and flood it with some glue…  

 

 

and fill it with your choice of the colored sand. Orange, pink, blue and yellow are great choices to reflect the colors of traditional Indian rangoli and look fabulous!  

 

 

We laid a wipeable tablecloth out on the floor to make our designs.  

 

 

And listened to this music while we created.  

 

 

         

 

 

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!