Craftory: Wax Paper Lanterns

[Music] welcome to craftory by prageru kids crafts history and your questions i'm jill and today we're making paper lanterns to learn about paul revere's famous midnight ride oh we've got a question who was paul revere did he make lanterns that's a great question the answer is no he did not make lanterns but lanterns are a big part of why he became famous you want to hear the story i'll tell you but first here's what you'll need for today craft sticks glue you can use any kind that dries quickly craft glue or hot glue now if you use hot glue make sure a grown-up helps you wax paper crayons a sharpener a dry towel and a hot iron this part will need a grown-up's help too okay okay before we start who was paul revere well paul revere was a silversmith which meant he crafted objects using silver he also dabbled in dentistry and engraving but what he became most famous for was his midnight ride in 1774 paul revere wanted to help defend the rights of the colonists from the british laws so he worked as an express writer who carried news messages and important documents from boston to new york and philadelphia on horseback he was part of a group called the sons of liberty and a leader in an american patriot spy network on the night of april 18 1775 paul revere traveled across the charles river and road by horse to lexington to warn patriots samuel adams and john hancock that the british were planning to arrest them here's where the lanterns come in revere had a backup plan if the british arrested him to make sure that the patriots knew how the british were arriving so he asked a friend to place one lantern in the tower of christ church if the british were marching towards them by land or two lanterns if they were rowing by sea across the river since the british ended up traveling through the river revere's friend placed two lanterns in the tower the poet henry wadsworth longfellow wrote an epic poem about this years later called paul revere's ride part of it goes like this hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch of the north church tower as a signal light one if by land and two if by sea and i on the opposite shore will be ready to ride and spread the alarm through every middlesex village and farm for the country folk to be up and to arm meaning he was gonna let everyone know it was time to fight the british let's start making our lantern and i'll tell you the rest of the story later we're gonna start by gluing our craft sticks together to make four squares so you'll need 16 craft sticks like this we're going to make squares and then glue them together [Music] remember if you're using the hot glue gun ask for help and be careful [Music] see it's a little square [Music] do good three almost done [Music] one two three four these are the sides of our lanterns next get your wax paper ready it helps if you line up the squares all in a row like this and then roll the wax paper long enough for all four squares [Music] fold the wax paper in half long ways [Music] line it all up then we're going to cut off the extra wax paper [Music] i'll pick that up later this is what we want to end up with the wax paper fitting exactly inside of our squares like this the next part of our craft is the most fun oh but wait i need to tell you what happened to paul revere after he saw the two lanterns placed in the church's tower he rode on horseback through the towns of medford and monotomy in massachusetts and told people that the british were coming he soon reached samuel adams and john hancock in lexington and warned them after midnight british soldiers arrested paul revere but he told them that a few thousand patriots were on their way to fight so the soldiers got scared and let him go they took paul's horse though so he had to walk back the first battle of the revolutionary war at lexington and concord began later that day let's finish making our lanterns here take your towel spread it out then take your wax paper put it on top of the towel and unfold it you're going to take your sharpener and your crayons and let the shavings fall onto one half of the wax paper i'm using red white and blue but you can use any color you want [Music] i love this part [Music] you want to make sure that you separate the colors because what we're about to do next might make them blend into each other so keep the colors separate if you can okay fold your wax paper over and then ask a grown-up for help because this next part uses the iron and it's hot ask them to gently slide the iron over the folded wax paper and you can see the crayons melt to make a pretty design oh isn't that pretty and we're good nice right so the wax paper where we folded it is now stuck together and it makes a great lantern paper our next step is to glue our craft stick squares on to this decorated wax paper here [Music] you're gonna glue all of these on very carefully to the wax paper that we just made [Music] it's coming together [Music] so we did it we glued our squares to our diy lantern paper wax paper and next i'm thinking that we take this next level helping hands [Music] cute right so the last thing is to fold this [Music] so that we make a cube [Music] very gently fold it fold it so it folds easy to make a little house for our lantern glue this part together and you're all done [Music] ah is it a cube is it a cube did we do it paul revere was clever to use lanterns as a signal he never really shouted the british are coming that some stories like to say you did but he completed his top secret mission quietly and intelligently to help america if it wasn't for paul revere american patriots might not have been prepared that day now when you light up your lanterns think of paul revere's clever bravery and how he helped america before the first battle of the revolutionary war we hope you had fun if you've got ideas or questions for our next craftery send them our way keep crafting keep learning and keep celebrating land of the free and home of the brave oh our light battery operated there we go one if i land two if i see hey who wants to make another one of these [Music] thank you for watching this video to keep prageru videos free please consider making a tax deductible donation