Chinese New Year Dragon Parade

1. Students research Chinese New Year celebrations to find out about traditions such as foods, music, red banners on doors, parades, and fireworks. Study images of Chinese dragons for details such as color, design, and form.
2. Using paper cups as body sections, create a multi-segmented Chinese dragon puppet. For a puppet handle, attach a craft stick to a paper cup with Crayola® School Glue. Dry.
3. Design each dragon segment on a paper lunch bag with Crayola Markers. Cut decorative pieces from construction paper with Crayola Scissors and glue to the bags. Decorate with Crayola Glitter Glue. Drape the paper lunch bag over the paper cup and glue to the cup. Dry.
4. For the dragon face, attach a paper plate to the front bag, and use construction paper, glitter glue, and markers to elaborately decorate it.
5. Create a long tail section for the Chinese dragon puppet with lunch bags and construction paper. Decorate.

LA: Read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the complexity band proficiently.

LA: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

LA: Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

SS: Describe ways in which language, stories, folktales, music, and artistic creations serve as expressions of culture and influence behavior of people living in a particular culture.

SS: Use appropriate resources, data sources, and geographic tools to generate, manipulate, and interpret information.

SS: Describe how people create places that reflect ideas, personality, culture, and wants and needs as they design homes, playgrounds, classrooms, and the like.

VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.

VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

VA: Identify specific works of art as belonging to particular cultures, times, and places.

Invite an expert on Chinese culture and the New Year's celebrations, as well as other aspects of Chinese culture, to visit the classroom. Prior to the visit, have students prepare questions for the guest. After the meeting, student post to a class blog what they have learned.

Once students have created their individual dragon puppets, encourage them to work in small groups to create larger Chinese dragon puppets out of recycled materials that are large enough for students to wear. Organize a class parade with groups wearing their dragon costumes.

Students research animals that have segments, such as worms and snakes. Students create models of these animals and organize their research into well-written paragraphs. Provide a space in the classroom to display these animals and students' writing.