These paper lanterns combine an oil and water technique that my children love. They look so pretty hung across a room and are a great kids craft for Ramadan.
Save time with our ready-made Ramadan teaching unit
For the best Ramadan lesson ideas, save time and get our ready-made Ramadan teaching unit from our Play Academy. Our ramadan Unit is part of the Play Academy’s Festivals curriculum pathway and in it your children can:
- learn about Ramadan: what it is and how it is observed
- make Arabic-inspired paper lanterns
- play card games using Ramadan-themed playing cards
- create geometric Islamic art
- make a crescent moon and stars craft
- bonus printables include Islamic art grid for the math and art project, a lantern template, a mobile template, Ramadan word bank cards for vocabulary building and a Ramadan placemat for an iftar meal
- plus over 300 more individual lesson plans in 50 ready-made teaching units so you can easily teach an engaging and successful program that includes math, literacy, science, art, and more, all year round, year after year. Everything is planned for you and easy to find, saving you so much time.
Download your Ramadan Unit here
Come and join our popular Play Academy community and never have to lesson plan again! Join here and download your first ready-made unit today.
Paper lantern Ramadan craft
To make these paper lanterns you will need:
:: a rectangle of card or thick paper (we used an A4 size), plus a little extra for a handle
:: oil pastels or wax crayons
:: watercolour paint
:: scissors
:: sticky tape
Start by drawing a design on your rectangle of card or paper, using your oil pastels or wax crayons.
You can make repeating patterns, a traditional Islamic geometric design, crescent moon and stars, or anything your children like.
Next, using some watercolour paints, cover right over the surface of your oil pastel design.
Watch how the oil pastels resist the watercolour and see how your design pops through the paint. My children love this bit!
Once your paint is dry, fold your paper in half, long side to long side.
Then use scissors to make cuts all along the folded length. Don’t cut right the way across, or your lantern will fall apart – just cut half to two-thirds of the way to the other side.
Finally, open up your card and roll it so the two longer sides meet to form your lantern shape.
Fasten your lantern in place using some sticky tape.
The cuts you made will open out to give you a great lantern design.
Use an extra piece of card / paper to make a handle for your lantern and attach it with sticky tape.
You can use a flameless LED candle inside to light your lantern, or string them up across your room like bunting.
Save time and get your ready-made Ramadan unit!
Yes, you can do all the planning yourself if you want to, or you can head straight to our Play Academy and download our ready-made Ramadan unit. That sounds like a better idea!
You’ll get a set of lesson plans to teach your children about Ramadan: a lesson plan to learn about the festival and how it is observed, a math-meets-art geometric Islamic art lesson, an arts and craft activity to make Arabic-inspired paper lanterns, play card games using printable Ramadan-themed playing cards, and a art and craft activity to make a crescent moon and stars mobile. Plus you’ll get a great set of useful printables to make your teaching even easier.
Come and join the Play Academy to get this and over 50 more ready-made teaching units, so you can easily teach an engaging and successful program that includes math, literacy, science, art, and more, all year round, year after year.
See more and download your first unit here.
Thanks for making something about Ramadan. We do not see a lot of crafts about this beautiful celebration in the USA. Thanks
I hope you enjoy using our ideas, Alli.