How to make a Chinese dragon

Whether it’s Chinese New Year or just a rainy weekend, this vibrant paper dragon will brighten your day and maybe even bring some good luck your way. Let your child’s creativity fire as they decorate their dragon, then watch them swirl and dance with the colourful creature. Manoeuvring the dragon on chopsticks, your child can bring it to life in a puppet show. Or help them create percussion music with drums or saucepans and wooden spoons, then watch them mimic the dance of a Chinese dragon to the rhythmic beat.

What you need:

• A4 white cardboard
• Scissors
• Coloured pencils
• PVA glue
• Colourful shredded tissue paper
• A4 coloured paper – two different colours
• Sticky tape
• Curly ribbon
• Two chopsticks

Number of players:

Activity:

Trace the shape of a dragon’s head onto the white cardboard and cut it out. Draw on eye, nostrils and a mouth. Use the coloured pencils to add other features, colour and texture to the dragon’s face. Glue the shredded paper on as hair.

Cut 3cm strips from the coloured paper and glue end to end to create two long strips. Now glue the strips together at right angles to each other. Fold one strip over the other, pressing down to create a crease. Repeat with the other strip. Continue until you have a long folded concertina-like piece. Glue the second end closed.

Using sticky tape, attach one end of the folded strip to the dragon’s head. Stick curly ribbon to the other end for the tail.

Attach one chopstick to the back of the head with tape and the other to the end of the tail. Your dragon is now ready to swirl and dance.

Notes

• Use whatever collage and craft materials you have on hand to decorate your dragon – eg, glitter, stickers, fabric scraps.
• Instead of cardboard, you could make the dragon’s head with a paper plate and cut strips out of the rim of the plate for hair.
• This craft was created by Greer Worsley. Greer blogs at Typically Red.