Arts and crafts are such a brilliant way to bring religion alive for children. They get to make something concrete and it gives you such a great chance to talk about the religion. I always find conversations are really interesting when you are making something together. Your hands are busy creating but your mind is active. While making this diva we discussed why Hindu’s celebrate Diwali and why they had special lamps to celebrate.
Molly told me that they are going to watch a Diwali dance at school, and she could remember making divas with her Reception class last year. She is beginning to have an understanding that different people believe different things, although she gets confused which religions are which. She could remember that Diwali was the festival of light but did not know the story of Rama and Sita so we read it on the computer.
The traditional diva lamp is made of clay with a cotton wick dipped into oil or ghee. You could make one with oil but would have to be very careful it did not spill and once it was made the children wouldn’t be able to touch it. Instead we used a pretend candle which was left over from Halloween and is much safer.
These divas are really simple and give lots of scope for being creative. All you really need is air drying clay so they don’t cost very much to make either. Molly is five and could do this completely on her own with just a little advice on techniques for moulding the clay.
You Will Need
- air drying clay
- metallic paint
- glitter
- craft jewels
- a candle
Method
- Make a ball with the clay – it needs to be played with a bit first top make it soft.
- Push your thumbs into the middle and pull the sides up to form an edge. Mould into a bowl shape with a lip at one end.
- Leave to dry – refer to the instructions for this – ours needed to dry overnight.
- Once dry cover with a thick layer of paint. We used metallic paint as it gave a lovely shine. Add glitter. leave to dry, again this is best overnight.
Decorate with jewels or whatever you want.
As you can see from the picture we had a lovely time making divas and they look so pretty in the window.