Create Your Own Pumpkin Lantern

You may have decorated your porch, balcony, or driveway with real jack-o-lanterns, but you wouldn’t want to keep them inside. But what if you want to decorate the inside of your house with lit pumpkins, too? Try making a few pumpkin lanterns!

Supplies Needed:

Orange construction paper
Green construction paper
Tape
Scissors

Fold one sheet of construction paper in half, lengthwise. Face the fold toward you and cut one-inch wide slits across the width of the paper. Do not cut all the way through. Your slits should stop about an inch from the edge.
Unfold the paper and hold it so the slits run up and down and the fold points out. Bend the paper into a cylinder and tape the edges together.

Cut a one-inch-wide strip of green. It should be about 8 inches long. Tape the green strip to the top of the lantern. This is your handle. If you plan to light your lantern with a candle, angle the handle to the side. This will stop the candle from heating up the handle.
Have an adult light a tea light candle, place it in a jar, and set it inside the lantern. If you or your parent are concerned about creating a fire, stand a short flashlight inside the lantern instead.

Create as many as you want and use your lanterns to light your house on Halloween night for a spooky, festive feel!

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Create Your Own Pumpkin Table Decoration

I hadn’t planned to post any Halloween crafts but, as it turned out, I missed creating them. So today is the first in a series of Pumpkin crafts. This pumpkin is a great table decoration. Make a bunch of them and decorate your whole house!

Supplies Needed:

Orange construction paper
Green construction paper
Pipe cleaner, either green or orange
Scissors
Hole punch

Cut eight or ten long strips of orange paper. Each strip should be about an inch wide. I folded my paper like an accordion so I would know where to cut. You might choose to measure and draw lines instead.

Cut a short, one-inch-wide strip of green paper.

Punch holes in both ends of every strip, including the green one. The hole should be about the width of your pinky from the end of the strip.

Stack all the orange strips on top of each other. Slide the pipe cleaner through the holes at one end of the stack. Twist the end of the pipe cleaner into a little knot so that it won’t slip back through the holes. Arc the orange strips upward and slip the pipe cleaner through the other set of holes. Now slide the pipe cleaner through both ends of the green strip. Don’t make any folds. You want your pumpkin to be rounded.

Twist the end of your pipe cleaner into a little knot on the top of your pumpkin. You may need to trim away a bit of extra pipe cleaner. Ask and adult to help you with this.

Spread out the orange shapes until your pumpkin looks round.
(You’ll notice that my pumpkin has holes punched through the middles of the strips. Yours should not have those holes.)

Place you pumpkin in a place of honor and enjoy!

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Beat the Story Drum, Pum-Pum by Ashley Bryan

Since it’s Monday, this is a very late edition of Fantastic Fiction Friday. While not necessarily an art book, Beat the Story Drum, Pum-Pum by Ashley Bryan is a great book to use as a read aloud when learning about African Djembe Drums or making your own drum.

Beat the Story Drum, Pum-Pum is a collection of African stories that have been passed down from generation to generation in story and song. During these storytelling session, someone often kept the beat on a drum. What I love about this book is the rhythm of the sentences. You can easily imagine the drum beat when you read this book. The stories beg to be read aloud.

The book includes five stories, each of which includes a lesson, though the lessons are a bit darker than what we are used to in the U.S. For example, the first story is about a frog and a hen who are trying to escape a storm. As the storm approaches, Hen builds a house and a bed, collects corn, and rolls some pumpkins onto the roof. Frog refuses to help. When his hole floods he weasels his way into Hen’s house by threatening to call the cat. In the end, Hen sends Frog to the roof to get a pumpkin where he is scooped up by a hawk. Hen eats her pumpkin with satisfaction.

I recommend this book for 3rd graders and older.

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Create Your Own African Djembe Drum

Like the African artisans you learned about yesterday, you can create your own Djembe (Jem-Bay) drum. This is a fun project, though it does take a bit a time. I recommend it for third graders and older.

Supplies Needed:

Two plastic, Styrofoam, or paper cups

Scissors

Tape

Newspaper

Flour

Water

Paint

Paintbrush

Punching balloon

Rubber band

Yarn (optional)

Cover your workspace. You’ll notice in the pictures how messy my towel got. Mix one cup of flour with two cups of water to make your papier mache paste. Tear newspaper into strips.

Choose two cups. Try to pick cups with interesting shapes. Cut the bottom out of the cups. You may need an adult to help with this step. Tape the bottoms of the cups together.

Cover the outside of the cups with a thin layer of papier mache covered newspaper strips. You don’t need to use a lot of the mixture to make the newspaper stick, and the less you use the quicker your cups will dry.

When the cups are dry, paint over the newspaper with white paint. This is just meant to cover up the newsprint and make sure it doesn’t show through the designs you paint onto your drum later.

Let the white paint dry. While you wait, decide what patterns or designs you want to paint onto your drum.

When the white paint has dried, paint over it with a solid color. I painted the top of my drum brown and the bottom yellow. You can choose any colors you want.

Let the paint dry.

Now paint your patterns onto your drum.

Let the paint dry

Choose a punching balloon and cut it open. It’s best if you stick your scissors into the opening and just slit the balloon apart. This leaves it as whole as possible. Stretch the balloon over the top of the cup and wrap your rubber band around it to hold it in place. You want the balloon to be stretched tight. Ask an adult to help you if you have trouble with this. Cut off most of the extra balloon (careful—not too much

If you stop here, you have a lovely, working drum. You may choose to add yarn to your drum. This can be difficult but, if you’re up for the challenge, you can try it. Wrap a length of yarn about four times around the middle of your drum. Tie the ends together and tuck them back into the wraps. Wind another length of yarn around the top, tie the ends together and tuck them into the wraps.. Now weave a longer piece under the bottom wraps, then over the top wraps. Repeat until you’ve gone all the way around the drum. Tie the ends together and tuck them into the wraps.

Enjoy your drum!

Tomorrow: A story you can read when making your drum (while you wait for it to dry).

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African Djembe Drums

Djembe (Jem-Bay) drums are traditional African drums. Each drum is carved by hand from a single piece of hardwood. The inside is carved with a special design that makes the sound more beautiful when the drum is played. Often the outside is decorated, too.

Goat skin is stretched over the top of the finished Djembe drum. The skin is attached to the drum by many strings. The strings can be tightened to change the sound that comes out of the drum. Sometimes, instead of goat skins, zebra, antelope, deer, calf, or camel skins are used.

A finished Djembe drum is believed to have three spirits inside of it. It has the spirit of the tree that the drum was made from, the spirit of the animal that gave its skin, and the spirit of the drum maker. This makes each drum special.

Check out this collection of African drums.

Listen to a clip of Djembe drumming. Click on the link that says “Main Instrument: Djembe, length 1min.” It’s worth a listen.

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