Ready for a fun Chinese New Year Craft? Chinese New Year is one of those really fun holidays that I enjoyed celebrating as a kid. Yummy food, wearing new clothes, red envelopes filled with money, and watching cool dragon and lion dancing? Come on, what's not to love? Since the holiday is just around the corner, I showed Chuck some lion dancing videos (Youtube to the rescue!) and then thought it'd be fun if we did some dragon crafts together:
Two Chinese New Year Dragon Crafts
Little background about me- Growing up I always felt like a "twinkie." Yellow on the outside, white on the inside. You see, I looked Asian, but I didn't always feel that way. Now that Chuck's getting a bit older, hubby and I are trying to figure out how two twinkies like us pass down their cultural traditions. (Ehh... it's a work in progress....)
This craft is one way that we're trying to pass down our tradition. And, in the interest of full disclosure, Chuck really enjoyed making the handprint dragon.... but he wasn't too keen on coloring my paper bag dragon pieces. However, once I colored and glued everything down for him, he enjoyed playing with it like a puppet.
So, do you wanna see how we made these two dragons? (I've got templates too! Ooh la la!) Keep on reading!
(And if you like this craft, definitely check out this dancing Chinese Dragon Puppet. It actually dances and is made from recycled materials!)
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Our Favorite Chinese New Year Books
To go along with this dragon craft, here are some of our favorite Chinese New Year Books!
- The Runaway Wok
- Bringing In the New Year
- My First Chinese New Year
- Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year
- Celebrating Chinese New Year
Chinese Hand print Dragon Craft
Materials to make hand print dragon:
- Water color paper
- Paint
- Paint brushes
- Scissors
- Pen
- Glue
- Download this template for head, tail, and claws
Directions to make hand print dragon:
Note: I found inspiration from Baa Baa Beep. She made lovely dragon scales by simply tracing her children's hands onto construction paper. So if you like that idea better, check her blog out!
1. Have your child paint pieces of paper.
2. Once the paint dries, trace handprints onto your piece of paper and cut them out. (We used 9 or 10 hand prints.)
3. Glue them like scales to your body piece.
4. Color in your head, claw, and tail pieces. (I drew them onto watercolor paper, so we painted them with watercolors.)
5. Cut them out and then glue them onto your body. You're done!
Chinese Paper Bag Dragon Puppet
Materials to make Chinese New Year Paper Bag Dragon:
- Download this template for head, body, and mouth
- Crayons (or markers)
- Glue
- Scissors
- Paper Bag
Directions to make Chinese New Year Paper Bag Dragon:
(This one is super easy to make.)
1. Color in your pieces.
2. Cut them out.
3. Glue them onto your paper bag. (Chuck's arm is pretty small, so I cut the paper bag so that it was shorter.)
Now you're ready to perform your own dragon dance!
Interested in 8 other AWESOME Chinese New Yearcrafts?
Check these out!- Chinese New Years Lion Puppet and Handprint Dragon
- Paper Dragon Kite Puppet
- Giant Dragon Collaborative Art
- Folded Paper Lanterns
- Paper Blossom Twigs
- Paper Bag Lion Masks
- Watercolor Painted Fans
- Recycled Toilet Roll Dragon Puppet
Happy crafting, friends.
