If you are celebrating Lunar or Chinese New Year, this paper plate Chinese dragon craft is just the project to make with your kids. It’s frugal and it’s fun and it allows for a lot of creativity.
Follow our tutorial to get the basic idea and let your kids go wild when it comes to decorating their own Chinese dragon. This one is especially great for the Year of the Dragon and as a celebration craft for everyone born in the Year of the Dragon.
*This post contains affiliate links*
It’s amazing what you can make with paper plates, from simple flat creations to paper plate masks and even cool little crafts like this Chinese dragon that doubles up as a puppet.
How to Make the Paper Plate Chinese Dragon Craft
What you need:
- pencil
- scissors
- glue stick
- two paper plates
- paint (red and yellow)
- paintbrush
- white paper
- colored paper (we used red, orange, and gold)
- tissue paper (optional) – we used red, orange, and yellow
- black marker
Step by Step Tutorial
The Head
Apply glue around the edge of one paper plate.
It is essential to add glue only around the edge and not to the center of it so that the dragon can be used as a hand puppet.
The Hand Puppet Sleeves
Have kids cut the other paper plate in half, then glue the halves to the edge of the first paper plate.
Your kids can “freehand” color the paper plats or they can draw an outline along the edge of the paper plate to use as a guide.
We recommend painting this part of the paper plate with red color, but any other color fitting of a Chinese dragon will do.
Allow the paint to dry a little. Once dry, let the kids paint the outer edge with gold or yellow paint.
Once the paint dries, flip the paper plate and paint the other side with red paint.
Allow the paint to dry.
Once dry, fold the paper plate in half (with the side with the painted edge on the outside).
Have children cut a zig-zag edge around the paper plate.
The Tongue
Cut a large piece of red paper shaped like a tongue.
Have the kids apply some glue to the back part (the side fully colored in red).
Glue the tongue where the paper plate folds are.
The Eyes
To create the eyes, have kids cut out two half circle like shapes out of orange paper. Each form should be rounded on one end and straight on the other.
Have them make folds at the bottom (the bottom is where there are the straight ends).
The dragon needs eyeballs, so have kids cut out two smaller white circles and glue them to the orange eyes.
Using a black marker, have kids draw a dot on each eyeball.
The eyes are ready to be glued on this soon to be paper plate Chinese dragon.
The Nose
Have kids use their pencils, draw a nose on yellow paper, and then cut out the shape.
Draw two nostrils with a black marker.
Then, glue the nose to the dragon’s head.
The eyes and the nose should stand up straight. It’s coming along nicely.
The Eyelashes
Have children decorate their eyes with different colored paper strips or tissue paper. We used yellows, reds, and oranges, but kids can choose their colors as they see fit.
Have them add some colored paper strips to the dragon’s tongue as well, making it look like the dragon is breathing fire.
Kids can now insert their hand into the slots between the paper plates to operate the dragon’s mouth, allowing them to open and close it.
What an excellent idea to celebrate Lunar and Chinese New Year, right?
Want instant access to all of our printable crafts, activities, and resources?
With thousands of crafts, activities, worksheets, coloring pages, and drawing tutorials to print, you will always have just the resource you need at your disposal. Perfect for parents and teachers alike!
