Easy Jack-O’-Lantern Candle Holders

Today on the blog I’m sharing one of my favorite Halloween crafts or projects perfect for preschool, kindergarten, or first grade students! These DIY candle holders make an adorable gift for parents and the students are so proud of them!

Hi sweet friends,

I wanted to share an easy craft with you today. I’ve been doing it for years with my students and they absolutely love it. I have a very chatty class this year (I’m probably kidding myself… who doesn’t???) but when we are working on this project they get pretty quiet.

It’s kind of been a running joke in the building about Mrs. Statum’s Modge Podge. We are right in the middle of a long stretch of time when you could have a pop-in observation so I’m just imagining having this spread out everywhere when an administrator walks in. I’ve been assured that if I have this mess out they will come back at another time! 🙂

For this project, you will need:

Orange Tissue Paper

Black Tissue Paper

Mode Podge (or a mixture of drop glue & water)

Smooth-sided glass jars (Mason jars or pickle jars work great!)

Newspapers

Paintbrushes

 

The mess really isn’t that bad. First, spread newspapers or old butcher paper out on the tables. My sweet assistant precut strips of orange tissue paper out for me. If you have a couple of shades of orange it turns out really cute. (See photo above.)

At some point in my life I must have went on an orange tissue paper shopping spree and have tons of it. I think it could take me the next 20 years or so to use it all with this project. It’s a little hard to find unless it’s Halloween so I assume that’s why I bought so many? Anyways,  you will probably be fine with a couple packs. In the first picture on this page, I let my students cut out their own faces using the black tissue paper. You can do that or go ahead and do it for them. One of my fabulous assistants decided to precut some adorable shapes for the students to choose from this year.

I put a little Modge Podge into 4 cups (it doesn’t take much), give everyone a paint brush (the cheaper ones the better!) and demonstrate what to do. First, put a little of the glue on the jar, wrap your tissue paper around it and “paint” it on.

I tell students not to add their faces until they are completely finished. I also encourage them to have all of their pieces painted down. You will have a few students with pieces sticking up everywhere. Thankfully I had some wonderful assistants with me this year who went around sticking the pieces down that were sticking up for the students who needed a little extra help.

We start with the jars upside down and when they are ready to add their faces we turn them right side up.

The mustache! I just love it!

The little bug eyes are so cute!

My students are so proud of them. While they were working I was constantly hearing, “This is really fun, right?” or “I love doing this so much Mrs. Statum!”

I’m so glad that we were able to take a break for a minute from all of the pressures of testing requirements and enjoy a fun craft. You can grab a bag of battery-operated tea lights from the dollar tree to really make a cute hallway display until you are ready to send them home.

This craft would be perfect for a homeschool group or to do with your own children.

If you try it, please let me know how it goes!

If you are looking for more fun classroom ideas and haven’t read my last post with an introduction to our Johnny Appleseed week, go here:

Johnny Appleseed Craft, Fingerprint Apples, & More on Pencils to Pigtails’ blog

 

Happy Teaching and Mommy-ing this week!