Dragon Puppets For Chinese New Year

Middle School - Craft

The Chinese New Year for 2016 fell on Feb. 8th. It's the year of the Monkey.

We discussed similarities and differences between the traditional Chinese calendar and the western calendar. Each kid got to find out what animal they were born under. I also read the characteristics for each of the animals represented in the room, creating a few laughter among the group.

We watched a short 3 minute cartoon explaining the calendar, showing how each of the 12 animals were assigned their place on the calendar, and another very short one showing a dragon dance during a New Year celebration.

The kids were mesmerized by it and we had good fun discussions on the topic.

I got the idea of these dragons puppets from a simplified version somewhere on the web during my various wandering online and thought it'd be perfect for middle school - a great success.

We added tissue paper scales and streamers for make them more festive. Kids did a wonderful job. It was awesome seeing them play with their dragons and walk around the room making them "fly.

Material:

• white paper
• card stock (to glue dragon drawing on)
• colored pencils
• tissue paper
• wooden sticks