Drink Carton Chinese New Year Dragon Puppet with free printable

Chinese New Year celebration starts next week and since I have several students in my workshop this term who come from Chinese cultural background, I thought it might be fun to do some craft activity to acknowledge their culture! My students loved making this Drink Carton Chinese New Year Dragon Puppet and it was so lovely to hear students share how they celebrate CNY with their family. I love seeing the twinkle in kids' eyes when they are excited about something.

How to make Drink Carton Chinese New Year Dragon

What You'll Need

• Free Printable Template

• Colour Pencils or Markers

• Scissors

• Glue Stick

• Paint (I used spray paint to save time!)

• Drink Carton (I used a milk carton)

• Egg Carton

• Paper, Stickers, Pipe Cleaners and other fun craft materials of your choice!

Step 1

Paint the drink carton. The colour red is considered a lucky colour in Chinese culture so I painted the milk cartons red with spray paint. I wanted to finish this activity in a single session so I painted the milk cartons in advance for all my students. If you are not restricted with time, I suggest letting your child/students paint the drink cartons themselves with the colour of their choice.

Step 2

Cut and paint the egg carton. You need two egg cups per puppet. I also painted these for my students in advance due to time restriction, but otherwise let your child/students do it.

Step 3

Seal the opening of the drink carton. Measure the long side and mark the centre. Because you want the top jaw of the dragon to be slightly larger than the bottom jaw, add 1-1.5cm to the centre and make incisions along the short sides, leaving one side incision-free. In the bottom image, you'll find that the total length is 19.5cm. Half of that is 9.75cm. Instead of making the cutting line exactly at 9.75cm, I added 0.75cm to make it 10.5cm. Once you cut the three sides, go ahead and fold/bend it.

Step 4

Staple the two egg carton cups at the top edge of the upper jaw/face/head.

Step 5

Print the free template featuring the dragon face parts. Colour and cut out each part before sticking them onto the dragon using a glue stick.

CNY DRAGON.pdf

Download PDF • 1.78MB

Step 6

Once you're done making the basic dragon puppet, it's time to start decorating it with whatever fun materials you have available. I had the following available for my students: colourful paper, gem stickers, confetti and pipe cleaners. You can also use newspapers, magazines and other household items. It doesn't have to be fancy store-bought craft materials at all!

My students absolutely loved making and playing with their new Chinese New Year Dragon Puppet. It's a great simple craft activity for age 4+ that encourages them to try different cutting techniques!