Light the Night
I shared the book The shortest Day Celebrating the Winter Solstice
by Wendy Pfeffer, published 2003
It is a good read aloud for school aged students the book explains the science of the shortest day and the myths that early cultures had during the shorting of days. Early astronomers began marking the shortest day and Romans, Druids and Swedes celebrated and had festivals. In Peru they honored the sun and carried fire to their temples and kept them burning through out the year. It touches on modern life with a scene of Christmas. In the back are facts and activities to mark and celebrate the solstice.
In addition I had several nonfiction books about how we celebrate holidays in this time of year, I asked the children how they celebrate their winter holiday and we talked about the way that light is brought into the celebrations.
The Craft
I cut cardboard on the paper cutter into 4 inch squares and hot glued them together. We had scraps of glitter card stock and glitter foam sheets that I cut in angler shapes. I showed my example and demonstrated how they could fit the pieces together, We had a glitter station and then I hot glued their glass votive to their star base.
My demonstration.
