St Martin's / Lantern Fest Songs #4 & Christmas Songs #1 : The Star Children

This next song is suitable for both Lantern Fest and for Christmas.  All about stars this is one of my favourites and is adapted/translated from a German song.

You can make up some actions for The Star Children or just let the kids dance around as stars during the chorus....use your imagination!  This song could be the highlight of a Christmas concert or just a nice song to sing with your star shaped lanterns.

The lyrics complete with the guitar chords can be found here.   The chords are not too difficult but you can listen to a recording of The Star Children below to hear how the melody goes.  A reminder : This is just me being recorded by a phone/computer so it is not the best quality but hopefully enough to get an idea how it should sound.

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St Martin's / Lantern Fest Songs #4 : I Have A Little Lantern

Yet another Lantern Fest / St Martin's Song that I wrote a couple of years ago!

This time the melody is Have You Ever Seen A Lassie?  Another song known by many and easy to find music for.  

I Have A Little Lantern nice and repetitive so this is a good one for younger children.  One again I haven't added the guitar chords to this song text because it is easy enough to find ones you like on the Internet.  I also haven't added a sound file because I hope it will be easy enough to sing.

The lyrics can be found here.  I hope you enjoy singing this one as much as my kids enjoy it!

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St Martin's / Lantern Fest Songs #3 : How Many Candles

This is another Lantern Fest / St Martin's Song that I kind of wrote a couple of years ago called How Many Candles. 

I came across a song about candles to the tune of Frere Jaques.  So I didn't have the idea for this one all on my own but this definitely isn't the same song I found online.  

The melody is very easy and one that every child knows and a song that is sung in many languages.  You can even sing this one with younger children and have them repeat the words after you.  Making it a lot easier for them to learn.  Also if you have older children you can split them into groups, boy vs girl, for instance and have them since each part after each other.  

If you want to play an instrument with this one then I am pretty sure you already have the music or can find it very easily on the Internet.   The lyrics can be found here.

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St Martin's / Lantern Fest Songs #2 : Twinkle, Twinkle, Kids So Bright

Here is another Lantern Fest / St Martin's Song that I wrote a couple of years ago.

There are only so many times you can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for Lantern Fest but I do really like the song.  While learning to play the guitar this was one of the tunes I used to practice and one day this song came to me.  

Twinkle, Twinkle, Kids So Bright is sung to the traditional song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  I haven't added the guitar chords to this song text because it is easy enough to find ones you like on the Internet.  I also haven't added a sound file because I hope it will be easy enough to sing.

The lyrics can be found here.   I hope this song gets some good use!  So far my kids haven't been too enthusiastic about singing it ;)

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St Martin's / Lantern Fest Songs #1 : Today is St Martin's Night

For anyone teaching English in Austria and Germany the Laternenfest (Lantern Festival) is a bit of a pain.  We don't have anything like this festival so there is a huge lack of songs you can sing.  Which means you can't really join in with this really pretty event.

There are only so many times you can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star before you and the kids get bored.  Also the parents will think you are lazy.   However over the years I have pieced together some songs for the fest and also written some of my own.

Here is one I wrote this year especially for Lantern Fest.  Today is St Martin's Night can be sung with actions.  The children (maybe better with the older ones) can raise their lanterns high, low, to the left, right etc.  You will have to practice this before hand but it may be worth it!

The lyrics complete with the guitar chords can be found here.   The chords are pretty easy with only G C and D7.  You can listen to a recording of Today is St Martin's Night below.  A reminder : This is just me being recorded by a phone/computer so it is not the best quality but hopefully enough for you to hear the melody.

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Lantern/St Martins Fest : Arts & Crafts #2

Here is another Lantern idea for St Martins!

One year we made lanterns that could stand up by adding one half of a round cheese box (the kind where you get the triangles of soft cheese spread inside) to the bottom before the newspaper/paste process.  Instead of using newspaper but coloured tissue paper.  Now this is much easier because you don't need to paint the lanterns after but you will need gloves because the colour does stick stain the skin a little.

The lanterns had a lovely shape and the tissue paper was thinly applied so the light could shine through.  We decorated them with glitter and beads.  We also needed to reinforce the opening with coloured card otherwise it collapsed and was also too weak for the handle.  What was also very practical about these lanterns was that they could be left somewhere to dry.  We didn't have to hang them up because they had a base that wasn't wet.  Really pretty and one of my favourites.

Don't forget to add a metal wire or some kind of grip for the kids to carry the lantern.  Tip : For younger kids or just for comfort, use a pipe cleaner as a handle.  Much softer!  

We only use battery powered candles and I definitely wouldn't use real ones in this kind of lantern.  It is very flammable! 

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Lantern/St Martin's Arts & Crafts #1

Lantern Fest otherwise known as St Martins is celebrated every November in Austrian Kindergartens.  For years it was a festival I couldn't relate to because I had never heard of it before moving here and working in a Kindergarten.

There are no songs in English I could use except Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and not much else I could offer in English except some stories about it being light and dark.  However over the years I have written my own songs and even made some lanterns.  Here are a couple of my lanterns...

Star Lanterns

These lanterns are really easy to make if you like working with paper mache.  Collect those free newspapers and get yourself some wallpaper paste and you are off to a good start.

I used balloons to get the right shape and if you have something flat to stick to the bottom (round cheese boxes are good) before adding the paper mache then they will stand up on their own.  Otherwise you will have to make a dent in the bottom when they are dry.

This can be a messy project but it is a lot of fun for the kids and they love getting their hands into the wallpaper paste.  I hung the covered balloons on a piece of wool to let them dry and if you can make these on a Friday and leave them over the weekend you won't have to put up with them hanging around all over the room.

The kids picked which colour to paint the lanterns once they were dry and the balloon had been taken out.  I then cut off the top added a metal handle.  We only use LED candles nowadays so there is no way the kids are burning themselves.

Because St Martins is also about sharing I cut five stars out of each lantern.  I placed them all in a box and each child was allowed to pick five stars out of the box to glue onto their lantern.  So we all shared a part of our lantern with others.

Pumpkin Lantern

Halloween and Lantern Fest are pretty close together so this is a nice time saving lantern to make.

It is the same lantern as above but made into a pumpkin.  You can make them for Halloween and then use them for Lantern Fest and save yourself a lot of hassle and stress.

You can make the pumpkin for Halloween and then in the days up until Lantern fest you can 'pimp' him up a little by adding some glitter or even changing his face.  You can also cut a second face on the back of the lantern.  There are many possibilities.  Just take a few moments to think about it.

Traditional Lantern

The traditional lanterns you see here are made of the round boxes you get cheese triangles in.  You either save them up all year or order them with the paper that fits the boxes.

There are so many ways you can decorate the lanterns and I have seen so many different ones over the years.  However this is one I made a couple of years ago that I really liked.

First we got two kids who wanted to 'share' their lanterns with each other and they picked two coloured (you can pick more if you want but we didn't want to go overboard) wax crayons and sharpened them. The kids collected the shavings and put them between their two transparent waxy like papers (you can order to make your lanterns).  The using a clothes iron I melted the wax between the two papers.  Now you can also use one piece of lantern paper and baking paper but that seems a little wasteful when you have so many kids ;)

This makes some wonderful patterns but it seemed a little boring and easy for our older kids.  So using black paper the kids made a 'street' silhouette, cut out some windows and added colourful tissue paper.  The result is what you see in the picture above.

Each one was different and unique.  The kids loved them and the parents commented on them too.  It wasn't easy and there were a lot of steps but it was well worth it to see them glowing on St Marins!

Do you have any Lantern Arts & crafts ideas you want to share? 

Feel free to add them in the comments section!

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