To celebrate Chinese New Year this year we decided to make a dragon puppet, but we got a bit carried away and ended up making two dragon puppets! Scroll down to see the puppets we made and to grab our free printable dragon puppet template!
Dragons are so exciting to little ones! Big and fierce, they provide lots of opportunities for play, so what could be better than making some dragon puppets to play with!?
Below you will find 3 different dragon puppets. One made from an egg carton, one made from a paper plate and one made using a printable dragon puppet template. Click on the titles for full directions.
The first dragon puppet we made was a dragon hand puppet made from two egg boxes. Harry loved this one as he could put his hand inside the puppet to make the dragons mouth open and close. He had a great time chasing me around the house making the dragon eat me!
Harry loved his egg box dragon puppet so much that we decided to make him a friend. Our paper plate dragon puppet was really simple to make and Harry had lots of fun making his dragon dance. We painted our paper plate inside a freezer bag which added to the fun.
Puppets provide toddlers and preschoolers (and big kids too!) with opportunities to take on different roles and get lost in a world of pretend play.
These Chinese dragon puppets are perfect to make as part of a Chinese New Year activity, but they would be equally as fun to make anytime of the year.
If you want to teach your toddlers and preschoolers a little about Chinese New Year watch the dragon parade video at the bottom of the page with them. They can watch how the dragons dance about and then do the same with their own dragon puppets.
Chinese Dragon Puppets
Below you will find 3 different dragon puppets. One made from an egg carton, one made from a paper plate and one made using a printable dragon puppet template. Click on the titles for full directions.
Egg Box Dragon Puppet
Paper Plate Dragon Puppet
Chinese Dragon Puppet Template
If you would prefer to go for a printable option then this printable chinese dragon puppet might be more for you. To make this dragon puppet simply print out the dragon template and colour the dragons head and tail. Then add folded paper to make the dragons body and add craft sticks as handles.
Whichever dragon puppet you choose to make we hope you have fun! Check out the video below to see how you can make your dragon puppet dance!
Here are some more Chinese New Year activity ideas that you might like to try:
- Chinese New Year Colouring Pages
- Paper Fortune Cookies
- Chinese Dragon Mask
- Chinese New Year Fortune God Mask from Witty Hoots
- Chinese Lantern Sun Catchers from The Gingerbread House
- Thumbprint Chinese Zodiac Craft for Kids from Fun Handprint Art
- Wool Painted Fans from Crafts on Sea
- Chinese New Year Card from Creative World of Varya
- Chinese Dragon Dance from Study at Home Mamma
Enjoy making your chinese dragon puppets as well as any other Chinese New Year crafts. Have fun and Happy New Year!
Two great ideas for dragons. The egg box one sounds really fun, my boys would love to make this. Adding it to our mid term activity list.
ReplyDeleteInteractive crafts are always so much fun. Both your dragons turned out really well.
ReplyDeleteLucas & Grace say - This is fab. We are really interested in the Chinese New Year. We run a weekly linky over at KidGLloves called Mini Creations and this would be a fab addition. We open every Wednesday morning. We'd love for you to link up :) #minicreations
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