Dragon Mask Activity
Give your little crouching tiger, hidden dragon some face time.
Submitted by
Kayla Chong
Kayla Chong
Invite your kid to celebrate the Chinese New Year by making this dragon mask out of recycled materials. Have him put together a pie tin, cereal box, some paint and a few streamers and ... poof! he's got himself his own magic dragon.
- A recycled aluminum pie tin or round aluminum "to go" container
- An empty cereal box
- Streamers:Recycled from your last big birthday bash.
- A small paper cup:Like the Dixie kind you use in the bathroom or to rinse and spit at the dentist's.
- Green, black and red tempera paint and a paintbrush
- Rhinestones:Red for evil, glowing eyes, other colors for kinder, gentler dragons.
- Yellow felt or construction paper:For evil-looking eye sockets, à la the the Gloved One in the "Thriller" video.
- Hot-glue gun and glue sticks:Kids and hot glue don't mix, so make sure you do all the gluing.
- White glue
- Scissors
- A ruler
- Ribbon
- Hole puncher
- Tape
- Black marker
- Glitter
Measure the circumference of the middle of pie tin or takeout container, mark the dimensions on the back of a cereal box and help your kid cut out a similar-size circle.
While he's got the cereal box in hand, have him cut out a slithering, forked tongue and thick, evil eyebrows from the remaining cardboard.
Help him glue the circle onto the outside bottom of the pie tin.
Then have your kid paint the cardboard circle and paper-cup snout green, the tongue red and the eyebrows black.
Glue on the tongue and the eyebrows.
Next, have your kid cut two lengths of ribbon long enough to tie around his head.
Using the hole puncher, make a hole on either side of the mask to fasten the ribbons.
Have your kid tie the ribbon through the holes. Make sure they're long enough to tie behind his head.
Before he decorates the mask, cut out eyeholes with the hole puncher or scissors so that he can see out. They should be at his eye level (when the mask is tied on) and as unobtrusive as possible.
Next, invite your kid to tape the paper cup onto the center of the dragon's face to create a snout. He can draw flared nostrils onto the base of the snout so it looks like his dragon is huffing and puffing.- Then have him cut two eye shapes out of the yellow felt and glue those on above or below the "real" eye holes to give the dragon a scary stare.
- Finish the eyes by either helping your kid hot-glue a cluster of rhinestones in the shape of a pupil inside the yellow "whites" of the eyes, gluing on a pair of googly eyes or just having your kid color in a black pupil with a marker.
- Finally, help him glue some streamers onto the bottom of the mask and add a little glitter for a finishing touch.
- Help him tie it on, and be prepared to be scared!
- Did you know? In Chinese lore, dragons symbolize strength, wealth, luck, goodness and the supernatural. During the Lantern Festival (Chinese New Year's big finale) people dress up in huge dragon costumes and dance down the street.
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