Dragons are important in Chinese New Year celebrations, but they can also be used in stories about knights and castles. This friendly dragon is fun to make and even more fun to play with.Here's how to make your dragon:
1. Take your cardboard egg carton and cut the cups apart so you have 12 single cups. These will be your dragon, so make sure that the bottoms are even so the dragon will be flat on the floor and not be wobbly.
2. With your paint or markers color the inside of one cup black and the outside yellow or green. That cup will be the head of the dragon. The black will be the inside of the dragon's mouth.
3. Paint or color the outside of the rest of the cups green or yellow. Let the paint or markers dry.
4. Decorate your dragon by adding spots of green to the yellow cups and spots of yellow to the green cups. You can get creative and use glue to attach beads or sequins, but simple spots are really enough decoration for a fire breathing dragon. Let the decorated dragon cups dry.
5. Using the hole punch or a pointed stick (the sticks that come in manicure sets are great for this) put 2 holes through each cup about halfway from the top -- directly across from each other. Be careful not to poke yourself!
6. Lace the ribbon or string through the holes to tie the dragon pieces together just as if your were making a necklace of egg cups.
7. Tie a small bell on each end of the ribbon. The bells are fun to listen to and they keep the ribbon from coming loose.
8. Glue the cup that is black on the inside to the front end of your dragon's body. This will be the head of the dragon so it should be glued with the black inside facing away from the dragon body.
10. Your dragon is a fire dragon. Make fire for your dragon's breathe by cutting a strip out of thick red felt or material and glue it inside of the black mouth. If you don't have material, you can use red construction paper, it just may not last as long. Don't make it too long or it will flop around and won't look like fire!
11. With your black paint or markers draw the dragons eyes.
12. Your dragon is ready to celebrate Chinese New Year with you. You can loop another piece of string or ribbon around the dragon's neck to make a leash and take it for a walk!
