Dragon Lantern Craft
Today I wanted to share a simple paper craft I recently made with my kids to help decorate for the upcoming Lunar New Year as on February 10th, we will be welcoming the Year of the Dragon. All you need is some construction paper or cardstock, the free printable template below, scissors, and glue. Hope it can help to add a little fun to your family or classroom celebration as well!
These files are best printed out onto regular paper and used as a template to cut out onto colored construction paper. If you don’t have construction paper, regular white printer paper will work just fine. Your kids can color in their dragons using crayons, markers, or oil pastels. You could also print out the template onto mixed media paper for your kids to paint.
When making these lanterns, simply print out the paper lantern cut template above, fold in half, and use as a template to cut onto construction paper. We also used 12X12 pieces of cardstock to create some larger lanterns. This is a great activity for kids to work on scissor practice. My older kids still enjoy this activity and look forward to making lanterns every year.
This is what all the pieces look like when they are all cut out.
Kids can either color in their dragon head or use the template to cut one out of construction paper, pasting googly eyes or drawing in their own eyes with markers.
My son decided his dragon needed many googly eyes.
The head and tail should be glued to the lantern body and the wings folded as shown before pasting to the lantern body at the top sides.
We hole punched our lanterns on top (making sure to go through the folded part of each wing to add stability) and added pipe cleaners then strung them to our ceiling with some clear fishing wire but you can use ribbon or a cut strip of paper. Finally, we crumpled up and glued red tissue paper to create fire.
My kids enjoyed customizing their own different colored dragons.
Some added different colored spikes while others decided against spikes.
We left some to display on our bookshelves, placing a battery operated tealight inside.
My kids really enjoyed making their dragon lanterns and were so proud to see them all displayed.
We also made these Vietnamese paper dolls from the template I created a few years ago. It is free to download here.
You may also enjoy:
More Lunar New Year Crafts (includes free Happy New Year in Vietnamese banner and paper Hoa Mai cut outs to decorate more lanterns)
Lunar New Year I Spy and Counting Clip Cards (updated for the Year of the Dragon)
The Best Egg Rolls Ever Recipe
I create more printable activities for kids here with the goal of helping to grow kids who love to learn.
These dragon lanterns would also be a great craft to accompany a unit on fairy tales or paired with a book like Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri.
If you get a chance to make these dragon lanterns or Vietnamese paper dolls, I would love to see it! Please use #sodangfun on social media, tag me @sodangfun on Instagram, or post to my Facebook page.
Wishing you and your family a healthy and happy Year of the Dragon!
Share this:
