Chinese New Year Craft: New Year’s Dragon
Chinese New Year is usually celebrated somewhere between January 21st and February 19th.
The Lantern Festival and Dragon Dance mark the end of the New Year's celebrations. Lanterns are hung in temples and carried to evening parades, where dragons as long as a hundred feet, weave their way through the streets.
Follow the instructions below to make your own New Year's Dragon.
Materials:
- 1 large paper plate
- Crepe paper (assorted widths)
- Glue
- Popsicle sticks
- Scissors
- Tempera paint or crayons
- Ribbon
- Fun foam
- Beads and mini bells
- Glue and tape
Cut paper plate in half.
Place one half, rounded side up, against your child's face to measure eye holes and cut them out. This will be the dragon's head.
Colour the dragon's head with paint or crayons - creating colourful patterns. You can even create a snout using the other half of the plate.
Use Fun Foam shapes to add texture and details to the dragon's face (such as nostrils, ears, scales, etc.).
Along the rounded edges of the mask, glue long strands of crepe paper and ribbon, so that they trail about 2' from the mask. You can also attach beads or little bells to the ribbon.
Glue a Popsicle stick to the inside of the mask to make a handle, allowing your child to hold the mask over his/her face.
Let the mask dry and then have your child parade their way through the house.
Or invite several friends over for a mask making party and then lead them on a parade through the neighbourhood.
By Rochelle Strauss
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