The Dragon Puppet

Siew sent me a Pinterest link for a children's fun craft dragon puppet which looked really simple plus interesting. I found this brilliant Red Ted Art post on how to make one, complete with a free dragon download.

Materials needed:
Dragon template - if you're feeling arty, you could attempt to draw it yourself
Stiff, colourful paper for the body
Disposable chopsticks
Tape, glue & scissors
Ribbon/Tissue/Coloured paper scraps (optional)

Print out the dragon template. I used normal paper and stuck them onto a cereal box to make it stiffer.

Colour the dragon. Bubs was enthusiastic at first (because he really wanted to play with the dragon puppet) but got daunted by the details and had to be persuaded to complete the rest of the colouring.

To make the dragon's body, use coloured paper and make a concertina fold. I used red (it is a lucky Chinese New Year colour, after all) but on hindsight, should have used a stiffer paper for it to be more durable. I was surprised at how easily Bubs managed this fold. He repeated after mee "fold in, fold out, fold in ..."

I did the remainder of the work by cutting out the dragon parts, gluing them onto the folded  paper and taped the chopsticks to them. I also had some silvery ribbon scraps which I used to make the dragon's beard.

Voila - the end result. Bubs was thrilled to bits with it and enjoyed making it move with the chopsticks.

Hear me roarrrrrrrr!