Delightful Dragons

Celebrate the Chinese New Year by making these fun dragon puppets out of paper plates and foam sheets. You could make several interesting creatures and let the kids put on a puppet show for some after-dinner entertainment.

Level: Easy

Time involved: One to two hours

Materials:

• Two 9-inch paper plates
• Scissors
• Two 12 x 10 inch green foam sheets
• Pack of assorted foam sheets, including red for the mouth
• Glue gun
• Large plastic eyes
• Fabric paints in squeeze bottles (optional)

1. Fold one paper plate in half. Cut the second paper plate in half. Place half of the plate on top of the first folded plate, matching up the rims to form a mouth. Glue along the edges of the mouth. Repeat this with the second half of the plate, gluing it onto the bottom of the folded plate. You should have a mouth that opens with spaces on the top and bottom for your fingers and thumb.

2. Cut two pieces of green foam sheet 12 x 9 inches. Place the paper-plate mouth over the end of the 9-inch end of the foam sheet and trace the mouth onto the green foam sheet. Cut this curve out of the end. Repeat this process with the second green foam sheet. Glue the foam sheet onto the paper-plate mouth. Continue gluing the sides of the two foam sheets together to form the body of the dragon.

3. Open up the mouth of the dragon and trace this circle onto a piece of red foam sheet. Cut out the circle and glue it to the inside of the mouth.

4. Glue two plastic eyes onto the top of the dragon. Cut a tongue out of the red foam sheet and wings out of the yellow foam sheet as shown. Glue these to the dragon. If desired, you could use fabric paint in squeeze bottles to decorate your dragon.

Assembling your dragon and adding the features.