Chinese New Year is fast approaching again. We have made some super cute fire breathing dragons made from recycled toilet rolls! An extremely easy craft, needing little materials and the end result is not only colourful and effective - it's LOTS of fun!
We have enjoyed crafting for Chinese New Year in previous years too. We made
Chinese Lanterns by recycling the paintings my daughter (toddler at the time) had done freely at her easel. We also made some
2D Dragons using the butterfly technique. They looked fabulous all together in a display - and is a craft accessible to the youngest of children!
To make a Toiler Roll Dragon you will need:
Toilet Rolls
PVA Glue
Paint
Paint Brush
Pom Poms
Googly Eyes
Tissue Paper
Begin by painting your dragons. I found that they dried really quickly as the toilet rolls absorbed the paint. I didn't find it made the colours less vibrant which was a bonus as my Preschooler was keen to move on to the next step.
Attach the googly eyes using your glue to the Pom Poms. They can be a little temperamental. We found that adding a good blob of glue helped hold them in place.
Add glue to the inside of your toilet roll and stick inside the colourful strands of tissue paper. You can cut them as large or as fine as you like. You could even look at doing a mixture of both and allowing the children to explore (once dried) which they prefer.
We only stuck the tissue paper one side of the toiler roll. We did this because the strands at the bottom will only hang and wouldn't blow out effectively. The side you glue your paper to is the TOP. This is where you will need to add the pom poms. 2 larger ones with the googly eyes attached towards the back and two smaller ones for the dragons nose.
Again it can be fiddly getting them to stick down, but adding a good blog of glue should do the trick.
Leave them to dry and then even more fun can begin!
You will need to show the children how to angle their blowing to make the fire breathing dragons look even more effective.
Aswel as being the perfect craft for Chinese New Year, you could also do this craft to accompany various stories with Dragons such as Room on the Broom, Puff the Magic Dragon, How to Catch a Dragon etc.
