Make A Krathong : A How-To Guide for Primary Schools

Today I got to make my very own Krathong along with the kids in my reception class.
It was really quite easy as you’ll see from the simple instructions/photos below.

You need a few things to make one. The festival is about asking for forgiveness for the water pollution that we have caused. The Krathong will be floated down the river with it’s candle lit. With this in mind it is better to use organic materials, although you can get them made out of polystyrene and other things (such as bread!).

To make my Krathong I used:

• Nails although these can be pushed in by hand.
• Circles of Banana Plant leaves.
• Strips of banana plant leaf.
• Some flowers.
• Banana Leaves folded and stapled into shape.

First you start by attaching the folded Banana Leaves onto the top of the base (I think this is a slice of a Banana Tree trunk). The aim is to look a little like a lotus flower so they are put all the way around the edge of the disc. Obviously these should be evenly spread out so it looks all pretty!

Next is to put the strips of leaf around the side of the base to cover it put. When this is done you then add a circular piece of leaf to cover what is left exposed of the base. Now you’re about half way there.

I then went ahead and added some folded leaves around the side of the disc to make it look more like a flower head (it is supposed to look something like a Lotus Flower) but this is optional.
Then you need to arrange the flowers in the “cup” of the decoration before then inserting the candle on a stick and incense stick somewhere near the middle.

To finish it off  I then added a couple of flowers around the edge too because there were some left over when everyone had finished. I was left me with this beautiful end product:
A few more pictures of making the Krathong are on flickr.