DLTK's Countries and Cultures Crafts for Kids
India Crafts and Other Activities including Diwali

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind this website is meant for children, so I do generalize and simplify quite a bit! As with all of the different countries sections on the site, the information here consists of a combination of simple things most of us know about, some library research, some things the girls have learned in school, and some things contributed by viewers who are far more knowledgeable than myself.

Thank you to Vini Inaganti (one of our viewers) for correcting some of my dates! New Year's on the Hindu calendar falls somewhere between Oct 15th and Nov 15th (it is not a fixed day as our calendar is lunar and is based on the positions of the moon)

India, a country in South Asia, has some of the richest cultural history in the world! It is an interesting and important country for children to study.

image of the spectacular Taj Mahal in the Agra District in the Uttar Pradesh, India

Taj Mahal, Agra District in the Uttar Pradesh, India
Photographed by Paul Asman and Jill Lenoble; used with permission under C.C. BY 2.0

There are a staggering 22 official languages of India: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

India is a country found in the Northern Hemisphere of the globe. As of 2021, the country is split into 29 political divisions (called states): Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

India shares borders with several sovereign countries; it shares land borders with China, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. Bangladesh and Pakistan share both land borders as well as maritime borders, while Sri Lanka shares only a maritime border.

Capital city:  New Dehli
Language:  Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu
National Bird:  Indian Peacock (Pavo cristatus)
National Animal:  Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris)
National Flower:  Lotus (Nelumbo Nucifera Gaertn)
Currency:  Indian rupee (INR)

India Printables:
	India Printables India Coloring Pages

	India Printables India's States Worksheets from KidZone.ws

	India Printables Printable Worksheets Anagram Word Mining
Neat Facts: As of 2021, there are 22 official languages in India! India is the wettest inhabited place (by rainfall) on Earth! The game “Snakes and Ladders” was invented in ancient India!
India Crafts for Kids:
	India Crafts All About India Paper Quilt Craft Grade school and up

	India Crafts Diwali Diya Clay Craft Age 4+ New Year's candle

	India Crafts Diwali Diya Paper Craft Age 2+ New Year's candle

	India Crafts Lotus Flower Clay Bowl

	India Crafts Rangoli Designs
Famous landmarks in India include: The Taj Mahal, Agra District in Uttar Pradesh The Taj Mahal is what is known as a mausoleum; it is India's most-famous mausoleum. The name "Taj Mahal" means "Crown of Palaces." It is made almost completely of white marble and stands at 171 m high! It was built between 1632 and 1653. The grounds of the Taj Mahal include the mausoleum, a mosque, a very large garden, and the well-known waters for reflection in front of the mausoleum. Qutb Minar, Mehrauli, Dehli Qutb Minar is a minaret which is a tall, skinny tower that often forms the part of a mosque, used by Muslims for prayer; there is usually a balcony portion of the minaret from which a muezzin calls Muslims to prayer five times a day. It is attached to the Quwat ul-Islam mosque. Qutb Minar is approximately 73 m tall, has five storeys, a spiral staircase, and gradually gets narrower from bottom to top. It is made primarily of red sandstone and began being built in 1199 A.D. under Qutb al-Din Aibak. The Qutb Minar was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. The Baháʼí Temple, New Dehli The Baháʼí Temple is a unique lotus-shaped temple to honour the monolithic (meaning faith of one god) religion of the Baháʼí Faith, and it is also known as the Lotus Temple. With 27 marble lotus petals, the Baháʼí Temple is constructed to look like a half-open lotus flower. The marble used to build the temple is from Greece, and it took over 800 engineers to build the temple. The Baháʼí Temple has 9 surrounding ponds, is approximately 40 m tall, and can accomodate over 2,500 people! Hawa Mahal, Jaipur Hawa Mahal is also known as the Palace of Winds or Wind Palace. It is the tallest building in the world without a foundation, is made of pink and red, sandstone, and has a "honeycomb" formation which allows it to stay standing in a curve shape, leaning at an angle of 87 degrees! It was desgined by Lal Chand Usta in honour of the shape of Lord Krishna's crown, was built in 1799 A.D. by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh, and was made to allow royal women to watch everyday life of the marketplace below without being seen by onlookers. There are a staggering 953 windows, keeping the palace cool; hence, many Jaipur royals used this palace as their summer palace. Dilwara Temples, Mount Abu The Jain Dilwara Temple complex is located only 2.5 km from the Mount Abu town centre; it consists of five main temples and is considered to be a major sacred pilgrimage site for Jains worldwide (Jainism is an ancient South Asian religion and is still practiced today). It was built by Vastupal Tejpal between the 11th and 13th centuries A.D. The Dilwara Temples are intricately carved entirely out of marble; it is often told that the artisans who carved the temples were paid according to the amount of dust they collected, encouraging them to carve ever more intricately.
India Animals for Kids:
	Camel Craft Kindergarten and grade school

	Crocodile Paper Craft Crocodile Toilet Paper Roll Craft

	Elephant Crafts The Asian (or Indian) elephant has smaller ears than it's African cousin. It is one of the largest land mammals on Earth. The crafts on my site are "cartoonish" so don't expect them to completely portray regional differences of the animals (ex: African elephant vs Indian elephant). These differences are a fun thing to talk about while making the projects with the kids though.

	Lion Crafts The Asiatic Lion is rated the most endangered large carnivore globally. India is the last refuge of the Asiatic lion.

	Peacock Crafts

	Tiger Crafts India contains 60% of the world's tigers. Bengal tigers are also called as Indian tiger, they are the most numerous of all the different species of tigers.

	Yak Paper Craft preschoolers and up

	Yak Toilet Paper Roll Craft preschool and kindergarten
OTHER INDIA THEMED ACTIVITIES:
	Other India Themed Activities Online Jigsaw Puzzles

Neat Facts:

Famous landmarks in India include: