Looking for a fun way to Chinese New Year Craft to celebrate the Lunar Calendar, this Chinese Dragon Puppet is just the thing.
This Chinese Dragon Puppet is great for helping kids celebrate the Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year Crafts for kids are some of our favorite holiday crafts. They are so rich in color and tradition, that it makes our hearts happy sharing these cultures with our kids.
If you are looking for other fun kids puppets like this one, you will not want to miss our other popular puppets including Ballerina Craft Puppet, Bat Paper Puppet, Flower Bookmark Puppet, and Butterfly Craft For Kids.
We highlighted this Chinese New Year Craft along with some other fun kid's crafts in our January Crafts for Kids as well as February Crafts along with our 101+ Easy Craft Ideas for kids.
You also do not want to miss our 101+ Fun Coloring Pages For Kids and 101+ Free Kids Printables full of Crafts & Coloring Pages.
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Celebrating Chinese New Year
Celebrating Chinese New Year is one of our favorite things to do with the kids. Sharing other cultural celebrations, like the Chinese New Year, shares different languages, beliefs, and traditions.
We believe it's important for our kids to not take part in other cultural celebrations, but to try and learn from them.
What does the Chinese Dragon Symbolize?
The dragon is an important symbolic figure in Chinese culture. Dragons appeared originally in the mythology of ancient times. Where they were believed to symbolize power over the water, rainfall, and all water-based weather systems. In modern times they symbolize strength, power, and good luck.
We also have fun Good Luck Ornaments, Chinese New Year Bingo, and Chinese New Year Word Search that you will want to check out!
You also won't want to miss all our other popular Chinese New Year Printables!
Check out these other Dragon Themed Activities!
Dragon Craft
With the dragon being the center of the Chinese New Year's celebration, we thought it would be nice to create our own dragon craft.
We hope you enjoy this dragon craft as much as we have had to make it all over the world. Easy paper crafts are some of our favorites and this is for sure one of them!
Supplies Needed To Make This Dragon Puppet
- Chinese Dragon Puppet Printable (Below)
- Crepe Paper (Red, Orange, Yellow)
- Two paper straws or popsicle sticks
- Markers or crayons for coloring
- Markers or crayons for coloring
- Tape
- Ruler
How to Make a Dragon Puppet
Print Chinese Dragon Puppet Printable
Have the children color the dragon. Encourage them to take their time and color in all the different details of the dragon
Cut out both the dragon head and tail. If they are not as strong with their scissor skills, then they can cut around the head with extra white. You can also cut them out for them.
Cut 3 -12 inch piece of crepe paper.
Lightly fold the crepe paper in half. Fold in half again. Then fold in half once more till the paper is approximately 1-2 inches in length.
Cut each piece of crepe paper in half lengthwise.
You will now have a 6 – 12 inch piece of crepe paper.
For the body of the dragon, stack three-piece of crepe paper on top of each other.
Fold into an accordion shape approximately a half-inch wide.
Turn dragon head and body over.
Tape the ends of the three pieces of accordion crepe paper to the backside of the head.
Tape the other end of the accordion crepe paper the other to the backside of the tail.
Cut the extra 3 pieces of crepe paper in half lengthwise and then again lengthwise, so they are 3 inches approximately in length.
Cut the edges of these smaller pieces to create fringe.
Tape those pieces to the back of the dragon to hang off the bottom.
Tape one straw or popsicle stick to the head and one to the tail with enough hanging off for the kids to grab.
Dragon Puppet FAQs
Here are a few questions you might be thinking about now that you've started this project
There are ways to make this easy for smaller children. Simply cut the dragon puppets out for those children and let them color. Also, just cutting out the head of the dragon allows them to color and you can attach a popsicle stick or straw to it.
Dragons are symbols of power, strength, and good luck.
You can color your dragon any color you choose. In the past, the color of the dragon was determined by the dynasty. Red is a symbol of good fortune and the reason many of the dragons are red throughout the Chinese New Year celebrations.
Here are some other Chinese New Year Crafts You Might Enjoy
- Fun printable Chinese New Year activities for kids will let your kids creativity flow and keep them busy coloring and playing games
- A childhood favorite, the Chinese New Year drum is all kinds of fun. It totally gives me a Karate Kid vibe, but they are all kinds of fun.
- Giant paper lantern DIY tutorial. There is something so fun about a tradition favorite, but with a giant twist.
- There is nothing sweeter than a fortune cookie after dinner. Our rainbow felt fortune cookie craft is a sweet gift to celebrate the New Year
- Traditional red paper lanterns are hung outside on Chinese New Year to symbolize a bright and HAPPY future. We are all in for that!
- How to draw a Chinese dragon
Download Your Dragon Puppet Printable
Looking for more crafts from other countries? Check our our Kids Crafts from Around the World Series
Chinese Dragon Puppet
Equipment
- Ruler (optional)
Ingredients
Instructions
- Print Chinese Dragon Puppet Printable
- Have the children color the dragon. Encourage them to take their time and coloring in all the different details of the dragon
- Cut out both the dragon head and tail. If they are not as strong with their scissor skills, then they can cut around the head with extra white. You can also cut them out for them.
- Cut 3 -12 inch piece of crepe paper.
- Lightly fold the crepe paper in half. Fold in half again. Then fold in half once more till the paper is approximately an 1-2 inches in length
- Cut each piece of crepe paper in half lengthwise.
- You will now have 6 – 12 inch piece of crepe paper.
- For the body of the dragon, stack three piece of crepe paper on top of each other.
- Fold into an accordion shape approximately a half inch wide.
- Turn dragon head and body over.
- Tape the ends of the three pieces of accordion crepe paper to the back side of the head.
- Tape the other end of the accordion crepe paper the other to the back side of the tail.
- Cut the extra 3 pieces of crepe paper in half lengthwise and then again lengthwise, so they are 3 inches approximately in length.
- Cut the edges of these smaller pieces to create fringe.
- Tape those piece to the back of the dragon to hang off the bottom.
- Tape one straw or popsicle stick to the head and one to the tail with enough hanging off for the kids to grab.
- Now its time to let the kids play
Video
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Chinese Dragon Craft
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