My son was recently tasked with making a lighthouse craft as a school project. We had SO much fun doing it that I decided I had to share it with you! I must stress that Oliver did most of this himself – I just helped with the tricky parts!
You will need:
- A strong piece of cardboard/plywood for your base
- A red plastic cup
- Red, blue and yellow cardstock/paper
- White paper
- Black marker
- Wood glue and Pritt
- A battery operated tea light
- A clear plastic cup
- Pebbles/stones from the garden
- Cotton wool
- Blue and yellow paint
- Blue and yellow sand/glitter/sequins for some sparkle
How to make it:
We used a lot of improvisation and tried to make do with what we had at home. The only thing I had to buy for this was the tea light (they came in a pack of nine at Mr Price for around R89, and I knew I could use them at home so I didn’t mind buying them).
The Lighthouse:
To make the lighthouse, I used a red plastic Coca-Cola cup, but you could really use any colour, as I ended up sticking red cardstock around it to cover up the white text on the cup.
- Roll red cardstock around the cup to cover it and secure it in place with sticky tape. Trim the edges to match the cup.
- Then we cut strips of white paper to glue around the lighthouse to create the red and white effect.
- Oliver then used a black marker to draw on some windows and a door.
- Take your tea light and Prestik it onto the top of the lighthouse.
- Cut a clear plastic cup in half and place it over the tea light – we just happened to have one that fitted perfectly, but you might have to improvise and cut the cup shorter or longer to make it fit properly. Use sticky tape to secure it on one side, like a hinge, so you can lift the other side up (like a lid) to turn on the tea light.
Create the scene
Take your cardboard/plywood base and paint a yellow beach and blue ocean. Or you can glue on blue and yellow card stock to create the sea and sand. Once it is dry, you can glue your completed lighthouse to the beach using wood glue. Glue some pebbles around the base of the lighthouse for rocks, and embellish the beach sand with yellow sand or real beach sand (we used yellow sand from a sand art kit we had at home). You can even glue on some seashells or a small piece of driftwood. We also made a tiny beach umbrella using cardstock and a toothpick to glue onto the beach (I helped with this). Then embellish the sea with blue glitter or coloured sand, and we used cotton wool and white paint to create waves on the ocean.
Basically, there is no wrong way to do this – you can use whatever materials you have at home and adapt it to work for you. I can promise your kids will LOVE it. Have fun!
By Sarah Mackintosh.