Dragons are most often used in celebration of Chinese New Year. The Chinese dragon has a colourful history. As the emblem of guardianship and vigilance, it was consecrated in the earliest religion of the Chinese people. The dragon dance takes place during the Chinese New Year parade and takes up to 10 people to manoeuvre.
Find a picture of a Chinese dragon on the Internet.
Mold a big piece of chicken wire into a large square shape. Form a cylinder with a smaller piece of wire and attach to the front of the square, leaving a hole underneath the cylinder. This will be used to create the dragon head (the hole will be its mouth and where you will be able to see out of when you have it on).
Attach wire head to the top of the football shoulder pads. Make sure you can easily put the pads over your shoulders and see out the dragon's mouth.
Prepare paper mache by cutting newspaper into strips and mixing flour and water together to make a paste.
Cover the wire frame with newspaper strips dipped in paste. Use the picture of the dragon as a guide.
Let paper mache dry.
Paint your dragon head with bright colours, according to your picture.
Sew two bed sheets together end to end.
Tie dye the bed sheets.
Let sheets dry.
Attach bed sheet to dragon head using needle and thread.
Attach hula hoops underneath the sheet to create the dragon's body using needle and thread.
Operate the dragon with one person acting as the head, and one person at each hula hoop to create the body.