China crafts: dragon puppet

With the Mid-Autumn festival drawing to a close, it was time to move our activities in a new direction (i.e. no more moon theme!).

Dragons are everywhere this month, probably more well-represented than any real animal that lives in China. We've found them in three of our books - The Great Race, Chopsticks, and The Seven Chinese Sisters - and at festival celebrations. The Whirl Girl is very into things that are a bit scary and dragons fit the bill, especially the one in The Seven Chinese Sisters. Scary enough for suspense, but not enough for nightmares. Naturally, she was excited to make her own "scary" dragon. We used the template from the Craft Jr website.

Supplies:

• a print-out of the template
• crayons
• a strip of construction paper
• glue
• wooden chopsticks (or bamboo skewers or popsicle sticks)
• ribbon (optional)

Step One: Color the template. In retrospect, I should have cut it out first, because the cutting out is detailed and requires a fair amount of time (that The Whirl Girl spent impatiently waiting).

Step Two: Cut out the dragon pieces.

Step Three: Make six folds in the construction paper (this is the dragon body). Decorate with ribbons if you're so inclined.

Step Four: Glue the pieces together. The dragon head folds over one end of the construction paper and the tip of one chopstick. The dragon tail folds over the other end of the construction paper and the other chopstick. Let it dry for a few minutes.

The Whirl Girl with her meanest dragon face.