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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Making Lady Liberty’s Torch


I cannot imagine what it must be like for immigrants to see the Statue of Liberty on their journey toward U.S. citizenship. To help my son understand all that Lady Liberty symbolizes, we read a few great books.

The first story, a fiction book by Eve Bunting, did an amazing job of talking about the symbolism of this great landmark. (It was hard for me to get through the book without choking up.) A family takes an annual ferry ride to Liberty Island 
at the request of the grandmother to commemorate the Statue of Liberty's birthday with a picnic.

When we were finished, I pulled out Marion Dane Bauer’s Ready-to-Read Level 1 Wonders of America book. Unlike the first book, this easy reader talked about the history and construction of the statue. My son was amazed to read that American schoolchildren donated dimes and nickels to buy the pedestal on which Lady Liberty stands!

After reading, we made our own version of the Statue of Liberty’s torch. I got this idea from Judy Press’ book Around-the-World Art & Activities.


What you need:
An empty paper towel tube
A small disposable cup
Aluminum foil
School glue and gluestick
Orange construction paper
2 toothpicks (optional)
1 flameless tealight

Cut a hole in the bottom of the disposable cup, the same diameter of the paper towel tube. Have your child slide it down the tube (1). Then, poke toothpicks in an X configuration through the top of the paper towel tube (2) about ½-inch down from the top of the tube (this will be what the tealight sits on). Clip off the ends of the toothpicks that are sticking out. Add school glue to the ends to secure them.


Tear pieces of orange construction paper. Glue the jagged paper to the inside of the top of the tube for the torch’s flame (3). Now, cover the tube and cup with glue, wrapping wide strips of aluminum foil over the entire torch (4). When the glue dries, add the flameless tealight to the top.

8 comments:

  1. I love your book choices and the craft looks easy and fun. Great activity!

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  2. I love the torch! We read the Ready to Read book too when we learned about the Statue of Liberty.

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  3. What a great project! I found you via the HS Blog awards! I picked you for the Versatile Blogger award :) heck it out here;
    http://cordialchaos.blogspot.com/2011/11/i-was-awarded-versatile-blogger-award.html

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  4. Wow! What a brilliant torch!

    Thank you for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!

    Maggy

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  5. What a wonderful torch! He makes a wonderful Mr. Liberty!

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  6. What a fun activity! The torch turned out awesome! Yet another activity I know my son would LOVE! Thanks so much for sharing this.

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  7. Very cute! Thanks so much for linking up to Fun Sparks x

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