Printable Dragon Paper Craft

How to Make this Paper Dragon

This craft is so easy that a toddler can do it – they aren’t going to color with fancy-schmancy colored pencils or stay within the lines of course… But they can certainly handle it.

Chinese Dragon Paper Puppet

You will need an additional piece of construction paper to create the accordion dragon body, plus wooden kebab skewers to make it into a ‘puppet’, like this.

Printable Dragon Paper Craft

Then simply click the above image to print out the dragon, color, and fold and glue as shown!

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Printable Chinese Masks

I’ve been holding onto this craft for a few days, and I’ve decided I can hold onto it no longer. It’s my new favorite craft on this site, and I think it would be a perfect thing to do with kids for a Mother’s Day craft (though I think the plant marker garden craft come in a close second on that).

Behold, the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

I’m actually thinking of making myself a two-tiered one to put in my office. That seems so dorky when I say that out loud though…

What You Need to Make the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

3 sheets of green tissue paper (ideally in three different shades of green)

3 sheets of pink tissue paper (again ideally in three different shades of pink, or whatever three colors you want)

I think the reason this turned out so well was because I was able to use different shades of green and pink tissue paper. Normal tissue paper packages don’t come so nicely shaded for paper flower crafts, but I swear by a huge package of tissue paper I am able to get at Hobby Lobby for $5 (inconveniently they don’t sell online, but CreateforLess has shades of green at $.89 a package).

A 3 inch styrofoam ball

A small cylinder or cube of floral foam to stick into the clay pot (You could also use play dough)
(I cut a triangle of styrofoam from some appliance packaging we had around the house)

A 3 inch (or so) mini clay plant pot

Plain straight pins

4 straight pins with pretty pearlescent ball on top for the main flowers

A 6″-7″ inch stick from your yard

How to Make the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

First cut up the green tissue paper into approximately 2 inch squares. They are going to get crumpled up, so don’t worry about being precise or anything.

Start scrunching up the squares into loose little balls. I found it worked best if I rolled them between my hands as if it were clay I was trying to roll into a ball. Even on a tiny ball you will need a surprisingly large number of these, because you want them to be relatively close together.

Next just start pinning them to the styrofoam ball. Don’t put them too close together, because you will want to have room to put in the flowers. You can see in the second photo how close I put them together.

Now cut up your pink tissue paper into squares. For the largest flowers I used about 3 inch squares, the medium about two inch squares and the small about one inch squares. Again, this is approximate, because they are just going to get crumpled up again.

Add the largest flowers first, because they will be the most prominent and need to be placed somewhat evenly around the ball. I thought I was going to add a lot, but found that four was plenty. If you can find straight pins with the pretty pearl tops, use those to attach the largest flowers. If you have a lot of those, you can also use them for your smaller flowers too. I didn’t, so I just used regular straight pins everywhere else.

Then add the smaller flowers in between the green ‘leaves’ where you can still see the styrofoam.

Next, decide what part of the ball you want to be the top, and stuff the stick from your yard into the bottom. I didn’t take a picture of this part, because it’s pretty dang easy to do. Then shove the cylinder or dough into the flower post, and stuff the stick into the midde so that it is standing straight up.

Cover the foam base with green tissue like you did the top ball, but this time, don’t let the styrofoam peek through.

And ta – da, you are done!

Most of these Easter printables are suitable for kids age 6+, though there are a handful of them that will either need adult help or are better for older children. All of them are free, though one or two them are on sites in different languages. Yet I made sure that all of them have at least picture instructions so that you don’t need to know Chinese in order to make them!

Related Pages: Easter Mad Libs, Easter Rice Krispie Treats, Easter Finger Puppets Craft

Find all our Woo! Jr. Easter Kids Activities right here!

Related Pages: Learning ABCs Worksheets, Learning Colors Worksheets, Homemade Play Dough

To make this shapes and colors game you will need:

• Construction paper
• Scissors

We got the idea for this home made game from High Five Magazine

Start by cutting out four triangles from brown construction paper.  These will be your ice cream cones.  Next, cut out the scoops of ice cream from four different colors of paper.  (Four circles from each of four different colors.)  I used a cookie cutter to trace circles onto the construction paper.  Cut one small circle out of red paper.  This will be the cherry that goes on top of the winner’s ice cream.

Crafting your own game.

To play the game, each player puts an ice cream cone in front of them.  The scoops are placed into a bowl or paper bag (we used a bowl, but it’s kind of easy for little eyes to peek that way), and when it’s your turn, you draw out one scoop.  If it’s a color you don’t have, you add it to your ice cream cone, and it’s the next player’s turn.  If you already have that color, you put it back into the bowl/bag, and pass it to the next player.

If you want more players, simply cut out more cones and scoops!

Whoever gets all four of their colors first wins the game and gets to put the cherry on top!

Mama won!

President George Washington is immortalized on our refrigerator this Presidents Day

I thought Presidents Day offered a great opportunity to start introducing Dot to some of the best lessons of American history.  I was looking for something to teach her about either George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, as they’re the two most often recognized on this holiday in February.  The angle I went with, however is probably actually only a myth and never really happened.  Oh, well.  I think “don’t lie” is a good lesson, so I’m willing to perpetuate the myth if it gets the moral across.

First I told Dot about how George Washington owned up to his behavior.  Then I realized she doesn’t get what a “lie” is.  We’ve been working on it all day, and I’m not entirely sure that I didn’t just teach her how to be dishonest.  Time will tell.  ;-)

To make this tissue paper cherry tree, you will need:

• Construction paper
• Crayons
• Tissue paper
• White glue
• Scissors
• Pencil

I recycled tissue paper from birthday presents.

Cut the tissue paper into small squares.  (Mine were not exact.)

You need lots of green and just a bit of red.

Draw the outline of a tree on your construction paper.

Wrap a tissue square around the eraser end of your pencil and dip it in glue.

Stick the green tissue paper where the leaves would go.

Occasionally use a red square as the cherries on your tree.

Fill in the entire space. I added "I cannot tell a lie" as a reminder of the lesson.

What I Learned the Hard Way: The squares I cut were pretty small, and Dot just couldn’t hold them around the end of the pencil to affix them to the tree.  So, we did an easier version for her, where I spread some glue around on the top of the tree, and she just added tissue paper squares.  Here’s the preschool version:

I cannot tell a lie, the original project was too hard for my three-year-old.

Printable Merry Christmas Banner

This is my last *sniff* Christmas in July post this year! I won’t miss it too much – I’ve taken a break from Classroom Jr. for the summer. And now that August is right around the corner, I’m going to be crazy busy putting new back to school content up!

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Merry Christmas Paper Banner Page 4		Merry Christmas Paper Banner Page 5

Check out all of our Christmas Kids Activities from the Woo! Jr. Network!

Paper Chain People Craft

While putting together these Christmas paper chains, I decided to create several more paper chain templates of people, animals and fun shapes. My kids love making accordion fold paper chains – I guess sometimes the simplest kids crafts can also be the most satisfying!

Related Pages: Printable Paper Dolls, Printable Pinwheels, Printable Dragon Paper Craft

Paper Chain People

Paper Chain Shapes Template

Paper Chain Animals

Check out all of the printable crafts on Craft Jr.!

Tissue Paper Flower Crafts

Tissue Paper Flower Topiary	Basic Tissue Paper Flowers	Flower Pillbox Hat	Embellished Tissue Paper Flowers

Preschool Flower Crafts

Preschool Paper Flower Garden	Cupcake Liner Flowers	Handprint and Footprint Flowers	Pipe Cleaner Flowers

Flower Printables

Summer Flower Coloring Pages	Spring Flower Coloring Pages	Printable Flowers and Baskets	Printable Flower Letters

Flower Desserts and Treats

Flower Cupcakes	Flower Cookie Pops	Flower Cupcake Toppers	Flower Basket Cupcakes

More Flower Crafts for Kids

Origami Flowers	Dried Flower Crafts	Flower Fairy Crafts	Paper Mache Flowers

Check out more spring crafts and summer crafts, too!

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Olympics Crafts for Kids

Here are four Summer Olympic and Winter Olympic crafts for all Olympic Games:

Olympic Torch Kids Craft	Paper Plate Olympic Rings Craft	Olympic Medals Craft	Olympic Flags Craft for Kids

Vancouver 2010 Olympics Crafts

Have you checked out yet the absolutely adorable Vancouver Olympics Mascots site? Their names are Miga, Quatchi and Sumi, and they are so freaking cute I can hardly stand it!

Vancouver Olympics Craft - Sumi Paper Craft	Vancouver Olympics Craft - Quatchi Paper Craft	Vancouver Olympics Craft - Miga Paper Craft	First Nations Totem Pole Craft

Olympics Party Game

Check out our free winter Olympics bingo game over at Classroom Jr.!

More Olympics Printables

Olympic Medal Count Worksheet

Olympic Word Search

Printable Training Journal

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Paper Snowflakes

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Snowflake Crafts for Kids

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More Winter Crafts

You might also like my paper plate penguin craft, printable snowflake pinwheels or these easy Christmas handprint crafts, too. I also have a lot of Christmas coloring pages over on Animal Jr.!