020 Water Bottle Luminaria ages 9+

These water bottle Luminarias are easy to make and create a festive glow for our chili cook-off. Students can collect water bottles to be upcycled for this project. The supplies are basic, and glow sticks can be used instead of the battery operated tea lights.

Step-by-step instructions and images:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oU4zMpaqIV0l9eIn1ymefxlcaoNsH5ua/view?usp=sharing

Transcript

Water Bottle luminarias,  ages 7+

supplies:
empty water bottles with top half cut off, copy paper, cooking oil spray, battery tea lights or glow sticks, markers or oil pastel, tooth picks or popsicle sticks

Go Texan Day is a Friday in March when everyone wears their jeans and boots to mark the start of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Traffic comes to a halt and kids n western wear empty out of school to greet horseback riders and wagon trains riding through the streets. These trail riders have been traveling for days from all over Texas and converge on Houston to kick off the biggest rodeo in the world. 

In preparation for rodeo season, our school has a chili cook-off where classrooms compete for the coveted, “Best Chili Trophy”. There are several art projects for students to make for decorating the cook-off and then take home at the end of the evening. Most of the crafts like this one light up to create a colorful glow for our party.

The night of the chili cook-off I get some kids to help me turn on the tea lights and place them in the lanterns. Glow sticks or glow bracelets are cheaper and will give off a pretty light in the cup lantern, too. If there is a breeze I pour a little sand or a few stones into the cup so they won’t tip over. Even a little tape on the bottom of the cup will keep a breeze from knocking them over.

This lantern or luminaria is made with plain paper, markers or oil pastels, water bottles and cooking spray.  Ask the kids to collect water bottles so they can be recycled for this project. Cut the top of the water bottles off ahead of time with scissors so they are no taller than 8 inches. One for each student.

This project uses plain letter or printer paper. Construction paper will now work. To cut the paper to size, set the water bottle with top removed on a table and wrap a sheet of paper around the bottle to look like a pillar candle. Measure the paper and cut enough so the kids can start over if they want to.

Hand out the paper for kids to color on. Any kind of picture or design they want. When I do this project many of the students will create a desing with the name of their chili cook-off team. When using oil pastel, have the kids lay it onto the paper thick, then scratch designs into it with a craft stick or tooth pick. Make sure they put their name on it somewhere before handing it in. When the kids are done with their designs, spray the paper lightly with cooking spray and wrap it around the cup. Tape will not stick to the paper with oil sprayed on to it. Use a stapler to staple the paper to the plastic bottle or staple the paper together and slide it down over the cup. Place a tea light or glow stick inside. The oil makes the paper translucent along with marker and  the designs scratched out of the oil pastel so the candle light glows through.