Painted Paper Lanterns

Children ages 3-5 made these beautiful painted lanterns with me at the OKCMOA. We gathered together to take a look at the George Nelson exhibit and read a book under his bubble lamps.

In the classroom we used his lamps as an inspiration and took our paper lanterns a step further by covering them with watercolors.

Paper lanterns are pretty economical and can be purchased online or found in craft stores in a variety of shapes.



Workstations are set up with newsprint, watercolors, brushes, paper towels and washbowls.



Before we paint we talk about painting gently. I have each of the children use their brush without paint on the back of their hand to show me a gentle brushstroke. We are gentle so we don't break through the paper.

I removed the black and brown paint from their options and we get busy.



We also talk about washing our brush between changing colors. We found that sometimes the paint dripped down our lanterns and that looked really neat.





To finish we tied yarn to the top and they were ready to take home to hang up! We had so much fun.

You will need:
-Paper Lantern
-Watercolors
-Brushes