Fire-breathing Toilet Paper Roll Dragons

Here's an easy and fun dragon craft you could make with your kiddos or students after reading a dragon story, like:

Raising Dragons by Jeredine Nolen
How to be Friends with a Dragon by Valeri Gorbachev
Goodnight, Dragons by Judith Roth
Good Night, Good Knight by Shelley Moore Thomas
If I Had a Dragon by Tom and Amanda Ellery

I was inspired by the dragons I saw here.

For Fire-breathing Toilet Paper Roll Dragons You'll Need:

-toilet paper rolls
-green paint
-pom poms (4/dragon)
-self-adhesive googly eyes
-red and yellow crepe paper (cut into 6" pieces)
-Elmer's glue 




1. Paint the toilet paper roll green.  Let dry.
2. Glue 3-4 pieces of crepe paper inside the toilet paper roll.
3. Glue 2 pompoms on the top of the roll - above the crepe paper - to make the snout.
4. Attach the googly eyes to 2 more pompoms.
5. Glue the pompom eyes to the top back-end of the head. 

I tried making a fire-breathing dragon with a paper towel roll, but the snout looked too long, and the pompoms and eyes seemed out of proportion.  Perhaps the paper towel dragon would have been more successful if I used larger pompoms and eyes.

Olympic Ring Contemporary Art

With the upcoming Summer Olympic Games, why not use make an Olympic ring contemporary art project with your children or students in summer school?  That's exactly what we did today with some empty toilet paper rolls and paint.  I saw the idea here, and thought it would be a wonderful connection to the festivities that will happen in London later this month. 

For this project you'll need:
Five colors of paint (red, green, blue, yellow, and black)
At least one empty toilet paper roll/color
Paper plates/bowls for the paint
White tag board (or other heavy paper)

Set up the paint and let the kids create!

NOTE - We attempted using paper towel holders; however, they were too long and kept toppling over into the other paint colors - making a mess.  If I were to do this again, I would only use toilet paper rolls or cut the towel paper ones in half.  

This was an enjoyable project for 8-10 year olds and for me as well.

Upcycled Crayons

Upcycle your old crayons!  From this.....

To this.....

You will need: old, broken crayons, silicone muffin pan, cookie sheet, and a warm oven. 

We baked them at 230°F for 15 minutes and voilà! Brand new people crayons.  We waited for them to completely cool before popping the little people out.

Why not make crayons to spell your child's name, the students in your class, or give them as party favors!

NOTE - do not fill the crayons to the top of the muffin pan.  About three-quarters of the way seemed to work for us. We placed a cookie sheet under the muffin pan for good measure.  While this is a neat craft for kids, we did not make them with the children since the oven is hot and so is melted wax.