In this short video Georgina Ridehalgh, of Fun Creations demonstrates how to make a Vietnamese Dragon.
Video Transcript
Hi I’m Georgina Ridehalgh and I work under the name of Fun Creations, I deliver workshops for children between the age of 3 and 11. Today on behalf of GrowingKids.co.uk I am going to show you how to make a Vietnamese Dragon.
Firstly, you will need some plastic or paper cups, you will need straws with the flexible end, you will need some construction paper and you will need some crepe paper strips.
To decorate you will need some stickers or gum paper squares, some self-adhesive foam, google eyes, marker pens, double sided tape and sellotape.
First of all we need to take our paper cup or plastic cup and make the shape of the dragon’s mouth. With the scissors carefully cut a V shape to about half way down, and on the other side do exactly the same.
We then need to take the straw and stretch the flexible bit out so it bends like so. This end needs to be inserted into the bottom of the cup; you may need some adult assistance for this because we need to poke a hole into the bottom of the cup using your scissors.
An easier and safer way is to use a piece of tac, place it in the cup so your fingers aren’t beneath and press into the tac with the scissors. Then insert the straw into the hole, so once you’ve inserted the straw it comes out and bend it into the cup like so – this will give the impression of the dragon’s tongue. We then need to secure the straw using tape. You take a piece of tape and secure the straw down inside, like so.
Then, we need to decorate the dragon. Using some google eyes we can put them onto the dragons head. We can then use the stickers to decorate the dragon’s head. I’m going to put two little circles on the front for its nose and then it’s entirely up to individual choice whether any further decoration needs to go on.
We then need to make the tail of the dragon. This is done by using a strip of construction paper, approximately 17 inches by 1.75 inches. Round the corner off with your scissors and then concertina fold the strip as if you were folding a fan shape, all the way down – over and fold, turn it over and fold.
If you open the tail out, now you can decorate it. Traditional markings were black but it’s entirely up to you, whatever colour if you want to make it bright. Once you’ve got your tail decorated and folded we then need to attach it to the dragon’s head. It is done by taking some double sided tape, placing it on the base of the cup and then where the curved tail ended, you place it flat down on the cup to follow the curved edge of the cup, and we have a Vietnamese Dragon.
An alternative way to do it, to make it more bright and exciting is to decorate the head with stickers and foam adhesive strips and crepe paper for the tail.
And there you have your dragon!