Peru crafts: Suncatcher

The sun is very important in Peruvian culture. In fact, the currency used to be called the inti ("sun" in the indigenous language of Quechua) and is now called the nuevo sol ("new sun" in Spanish). There's also a big Sun God festival in the Andean city of Cusco that we've been reading about in one of our books, Up and Down the Andes.

So a sun craft was in order! I liked this suncatcher idea from InCultureParent.

The Whirl Girl remembered this picture of the Sun God in her book, which she used as inspiration

Supplies:

• construction paper
• wax paper
• scissors
• glue
• red, orange, yellow small crayon pieces (I chopped old crayons with a sharp knife)
  

Step One: Make the sun's interior. Cut two round circles out of wax paper. Sprinkle crayon pieces on one and put the other on top.

Step Two: Using a dish towel below and on top of the wax paper, iron the wax paper. Just hold the iron down in each place for a couple of seconds. It will melt the crayons for this effect:

Step Three: Cut out circles of construction paper to go around the wax paper. Add some rays if you'd like. We were a little more elaborate in this part than I had intended because The Whirl Girl was really excited about using some new craft scissors that she was gifted that create different shapes when cutting.

Step Four: Glue it all together.

The Final Product. When it catches the sun, it glows!