Art Project: Decorate Christmas Candles with Beeswax

A great way to help children reflect on the Christmas story is to have them decorate their own candles with beeswax. Decorating candles is a beloved activity in Germany. I first became aware of it three years ago when a Godly Play colleague was making a candle for her godson's baptism. It is a pleasurable, tactile experience as well to mold and shape the beeswax between the fingers and smell its fragrance. 

You  will need a wide candle for this activity so that the "canvas" is big enough for small hands to work on. The height is not so important, but the wider, the better. 

In Germany, Stockmar sells what is called "Verzierwachs", which are thin sheets of beeswax for decorating candles. It is like modeling wax, but much thinner. If you can't find this, modeling wax like this here will work, but you may need to warm it a little at first so that small hands are not frustrated by the hardness of it.

It is important to tell the children to begin by kneading very small pieces of wax. The tendency of the children is to take a large piece, but larger pieces do not adhere to the candle as well. We actually cut the long strips of wax into smaller pieces before giving it to the children at Advent Club.

I made this simple candle to use as an example at Advent Club. I purposely made it very simplistic, because I find that when I do more elaborate things, the kids simply copy my work. If you are doing this with a group, it may help to ask them some "Wondering" questions, like "I wonder, what your favorite part of the Christmas story is?" or "I wonder, what part is the most important?" You are sure to be surprised by some of the answers you get to what the children put on their candles!

Here is some of the children's work from Advent Club:

Wishing you a joyous and meaningful First Advent on Sunday!


Linked to Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions

and Grünzeug at Naturkinder

and Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now

and Waldorf Wednesday at Seasons of Joy

and Kids Get Crafty at Red Ted's Art Blog

Art Project: Sandpaper & Chalk Pastels

I have another project to share with you that we did this week in our after-school club, "Expedition in the Desert!": chalk pastel drawings on sandpaper. This extraordinarily easy project is also a tactile delight for kids. Many thanks to DLTK - Growing Together for the idea. 

I recommend using a coarser grain of sandpaper and good-quality chalk pastels. Before they began drawing, I gave the children the following tips:

1. Lightly sketch the main parts of the picture with a pencil before using the chalk pastels.

2. Draw the things in front first and then work on the background. This is an important step when starting out with chalk pastels. Because you can't color over things with chalk pastels without them showing through, you draw what is in front first and then work on the background last. This is the exact opposite of what a child would do in painting and it is worth pointing out to them. 

Here is my sample painting that I showed the children:

And here is some student work:

The picture that I drew is of the burning bush from the Moses story that we heard this week. I did not intend for the children to use this theme, but most of them did anyway. In an art class, that would be fine, but in Godly Play, it is not. I realized then that my sample had been too direct and that it would have been better to have simply told them what to do rather than show them. Oh well, we learn from our mistakes. : )

Art Project: Buryat Peg Doll

From 1993-96 I called the Siberian city of Ulan-Ude home. (And, yes, I was there voluntarily and happily!) Ulan-Ude is the capital of an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation called Buryatia. While Buryatia has a large Russian population and is highly influenced by Russian culture, it is of course the home of the Buryats, who were the original inhabitants of this part of Siberia.

My family will visiting Ulan-Ude on an upcoming trip, and if you have been reading my recent posts, you know I have been doing everything possible to prepare my children for the people they will meet and cultures they will experience. Since some of my dearest friends in the world are Buryats, I really want my kids to be familiar with this beautiful people group as well.

Art is one of my favorite mediums for teaching about other cultures. Since I had some extra wooden peg dolls left over from a Godly Play project, I had the idea to create a Buryat peg doll as an art project.

This is the Buryat peg doll that I created.

This is a map of Russia and the Republic of Buryatia is in red.
Before we began the peg doll project, I helped my children locate Russia on our wooden
Montessori map and then showed them Buryatia on the map above.

We also looked at pictures like this one of Buryats in their traditional costumes.
You want see any Buryats these days walking down the street dressed like this,
but they do pull them out on special occasions.

My peg doll was inspired by wooden Buryat dolls that I saw often in Ulan-Ude.
In fact, I have some that I bought when I lived there, but they are packed away somewhere
 at my parents' home in the States. I found this picture on-line of a Mongolian doll from the company
Face Music that close resembles the dolls I had.

Step 1: Choose paints and several sizes of paint brushes for your doll.

Step 2: Paint the body of the doll. When my daughter painted hers, I used masking tape to cover the neck  and feet, because painting the edges can be tricky for little hands.

Step 3: After looking at pictures of traditional Buryat hats, make a hat out of clay. I used regular modeling clay, but you could use air-hardening clay as well. You can do this while the body is drying.

Step 4: Paint the hat with Mod Podge or some sort of varnish that will give it a shiny coat and help hold its form. The varnish will act as an adhesive to glue the hat to the doll. 

Step 5: Paint the facial features. I had my daughter practice a little on a separate sheet of paper. 

Step 6: Paint any decorations on the body after the first coat of paint has dried. 

Step 7: Paint the back of the doll. 

Here is my daughter's beautiful doll! Her peg doll was slightly larger than mine to make it easier for her. Also, I was pleased that she chose a different decorative motif for the doll's dress.

We only had two meltdowns during this project and they were over faster than the one during the Matryoshka project! (For more on that topic, see this post.) My 8-year-old son, while very interested in the Buryats, opted to paint pictures of the X-men instead of doing a peg doll.: ) But I couldn't have asked for a better afternoon with all of us sitting around the table together doing art.

And the Buryat peg dolls have now joined the Acorn family and the Chestnut family on our autumn nature table. So much fun to be a child, create and play!

Linked to The Magic Onions

Saturday's Artist at Ordinary Life Magic

Monday Madness at Let Kids Create and Art 4 Little Hands