Origami Dragon How-To

As promised, here is the "how to" post.  I have students paint Chinese letters (characters?) all over 12 x 18 paper:

This one isn't finished, and for ease of returning work,
I have each class use different colors.

We use bamboo brushes and ceramic brush rests that we've made when we do this.  It's important that they write their names SIX TIMES on the back (spread out three times evenly along the top, three times on the bottom). Each page is cut to 6 x 6":

I then teach them a super-easy origami fold:

Fold in half, painting side out.

Fold in half the other direction, painting side still out.

Open up and fold corners to the middle.

All corners folded in.

Now, fold the tips back just until it meets the edge of the paper.

They spend most of one class period folding, and then they glue them, tips-to-tips and back-to-back, making the dragon body:

The length of the body is dependent on how many papers they have.

Next, they use 9 x 12 construction paper to make the dragon's head, and scraps (same color + black and white) to make the details.  Their dragon should have: the head of a camel, horns of a deer, ears of a cow and eyes of a rabbit.  Some add things like eyebrows and teeth.

Confession: this is last year's yellow group.
This year's isn't up yet.  I'll get to it. . . eventually!

Some classes (like my red class this year) get super competitive and try to make the biggest dragons.  And some classes (hello, blue class!) do the absolute minimum despite my prodding.