How to Make a Dragon Head Out of a Tissue Box for the Chinese New Year
As an ode to supernatural elements and a representation of good luck, goodness and strength, the dragon plays a significant role in Chinese New Year celebrations. The Chinese create dragon decorations and costumes for the most popular holiday of their culture. Chinese New Year parades can feature dragon costumes that are up to 100 feet in length. Several men fill the spaces under the long dragon costumes and move the beasts down the parade routes. To decorate your home or classroom for Chinese New Year, you can create a small dragon head using a tissue box.
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Things You'll Need
- Square tissue box
- Multi-colored tissue paper
- Scissors
- White glue
- Water
- 2 sheets of green construction paper
- 1 sheet of red construction paper
- 1 sheet of yellow construction paper
- Gold paint
- Multi-colored yarn
Instructions
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Cut squares of multi-colored tissue paper and place them in a bowl. Mix 1 cup of glue with 1/2 cup of water, blending them thoroughly. Apply glue mixture to a small area of the tissue box and place a tissue paper square onto that area, then apply a thin layer of the adhesive over the tissue paper. Continue this process until colorful squares cover the entire surface of the tissue box.
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Sponge or finger-paint designs onto sheets of green construction paper with the gold paint. Once the paint dries, roll one sheet of paper into a cylinder shape and seal it with glue, forming the base of the tail. Cut a wavy pattern out of the other sheet of paper and glue it onto the paper cylinder. Use the extra scraps of paper to cut a V-shape and attach it to the back of the tail with glue. Fit the other side of the round tail into the opening of the tissue box and push it in far enough to secure the two parts together.
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Cut out two circles from the red paper and glue them onto the front of the box as dragon eyes. Then, cut two triangle shapes from the yellow paper and glue them below the eyes to create a tongue for the dragon. To create the dragon's hair, cut the yarn into 60 small pieces, about 4 inches in length and attach 30 strands on each side of the tissue box with glue.
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Tips & Warnings
Children can slip their arm in the dragon's tail to use it as a puppet.
To add sparkle to the dragon craft, sprinkle it with gold or silver glitter.
Supervise children while they use scissors.
Resources
- Photo Credit Stockbyte/Stockbyte/Getty Images
