Chinese Dragons

1st Grade: Chinese Dragons

1st Graders learned about Chinese New Year. They saw some videos featuring a Dragon Dance (a Giant Chinese Dragon controlled by many puppeteers) and a parade with people in Chinese Dragon costumes. We talked about how colorful the Dragons were and how they mean good luck (not scary like Western Dragons). The longer the dragon, the more good luck! We also discussed some other Chinese New Year traditions like fireworks and giving red envelopes filled with money! 

1st Graders created these magnificent dragons to celebrate what they learned about Chinese New Year. We did a step by step for drawing the dragon. I showed students some common themes in Chinese Dragons (beards, crazy fun hair, theatrical eyes, nose and mouth). Students also drew lines on their dragons as they were to paint a pattern in warm colors for the stripes. Students also made red envelopes and pretend money to stuff in the envelopes. Students wrote "happiness" on the envelopes with a Gold Sharpie marker. (in Chinese Characters). 

We used liquid watercolors for the dragon and  paint/crayons for face. More watercolor for background. Students could use blue-green/green. A nice contrast for the warm colored dragon. Students also brushed on some gold glitter tempera. In these pics that is hard to see. Also, some students used red glitter glue as it finally came in in time for one class to make use of it. I will add that I had a Chinese Dragon stamp that I also passed around for the class. Students used it to  stamp on a Dragon to their envelope with gold tempera as I had no gold ink. The tempera worked fine, however and looked nice on the red paper. Crinkle looking confetti was used for added detail and "fireworks". This project seemed to last a very long time! 4 art days total which is a month as I see 1st graders once a week. 

I do love these!