Year of the Snake

Last year for Chinese New Year we made lanterns and dragon masks. Well, it's about time for the dragon to move on over for the snake. Sunday the 10th is Chinese New Year and the snake will reign through next January.

This project was modeled after one I did sometime around second grade. I remember that I loved making it and it actually was hanging up in my room even when I was in high school. Thinking that if I loved the project so much that my boys, one of them a huge animal lover, would be all over this. With the "Year of the Snake" coming up, I decided the timing was perfect.

Very basic supplies that you probably have sitting around already. Markers also work well (unless you pick the dried out ones like I did!). The paper plate will need to be the very basic cheap-o ones.

Using the indented circle as a template, cut out the head. When starting on the outer edge of the plate, make sure you cut at an angle, as one end will be the tail.

Either pre-fold the circle in half or just keep it flat and fold later and fill in the mouth.

On the other side give the snake some eyes and nose dots then fold in half. The head is ready to go.

Next up is the body. The bumpiness of the plate is a little hard to color on, so you can just smash it down before you start.

 You can look up various patterns snakes often have to decorate it or just wing it like we did.

 Fold up one end of the outer ring and staple to the head.

 Your snake will look something like the one on the right. You can roll it up to help it curl better.

 The longer they hang the more elongated the body will be.

The project was even more loved than I could have guessed. My animal lover asked both yesterday and today if he could make more, in addition to the two he did on his own and the one we tag teamed on. They are easy and very kid friendly to make. Options are endless.

Lanterns & Dragons

Today is Chinese New Year (aka Spring Festival) and marks the start of the Year of the Dragon. It is also the biggest holiday in China. There are a lot of fun traditions and festivals leading up to this day each year and I only read about them, so I'm not going to pretend to be any kind of expert. Some of the things that they do are have a lantern festival and watch parades with people dressed as dragons and lions.

Before we started our two projects, I read my boys the book "Lanterns and Firecrackers." It was a simple run down of what goes on during the Chinese New Year.

We also got "Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats" to read later today, as suggested by Let's Explore (who has some great monthly book lists).

Both projects are simple and require few supplies.  Construction paper, scissors, glue, a stapler, and paper plates should do the trick.

 To make the lanterns, fold the paper lengthwise, from the folded side make cuts about 1.5 to 2 inches (or really, whatever distance you like) without cutting all the way to the edge of the paper. Unfold it and roll it up like pictures and secure with a couple of staples.

Red is a more traditional color to use, but my boys wanted different colors, so we made a whole rainbow of them.

You can add handles to the lanterns by cutting a strip of paper and stapling it on two sides of the lantern. We use the short end of the construction paper, but any length is fine.

 Our next project was to make some dragon masks. If you look at pictures of Chinese dragon masks you will see that they are very colorful and there is a lot of variety. My boys like being able to just make it up as they went without feeling like they had to have it a certain way (though they did seem to copy elements of mine).

 We used the bottom side of the paper plates so that that masks would curve towards our faces. My younger son wanted his to have eye holes, so we cut those out before gluing on the paper so he could see. From here it is a free for all. I ripped all my pieces for a different sort of texture. My older son cut his with scissors. My younger son wanted stripes. As you can see, there are so many ways to make the masks. You could even just paint or color the masks with crayons.

Ta-da! It took awhile for the glue to dry. At their request after I was done taking pictures, I added popsicle stick to the bottom so they could hold them that way. 

 Enjoying making these projects and using it as a time to teach your kids about customs that people have in other countries. And to top it all off, have Chinese food tonight!