DRAGON HELPS CHILDREN WELCOME IN CHINESE NEW YEAR

Saturday was the day of the dragon at Franklin School.

Children made dragon heads and pretended to be a dragon in an arts program inspired by the Chinese New Year coming up Feb. 5. This will be the year of the dragon.

The 12 children attached colored streamers to their arms as a prelude to the Dragon Dance, a game in which the head of the dragon tries to catch the tail. Each of the children who wanted to got to be the dragon's head.

Usually children in the monthly Cultural Kids program make something to take home, but teacher Lisa Bishop also often includes an activity.

"I like to have them do something that will stay in their minds," said Bishop, who teaches the class for the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri.

Using glue and tape, glitter, beads, streamers and feathers, the children and some of their parents also made dragon heads of construction paper. The streamers and feathers on the dragon heads will make them appear to be breathing fire when placed over a warm air blower.

Bishop taught them that Chinese tradition says it's supposed to be bad luck to wash your hair on New Year's Day. It's also supposed to be bad luck for children to cry on New Year's Day, and a day when old grudges are forgiven.

Rebecca Finney of Jackson brought her children, second-grader Rachel and kindergartner Sam, to Saturday's program because she wants to fuel their artistic abilities. "You can never have enough art," she says.

Kathie Mecham makes the art alongside her 6-year-old son, Kiefer. "Children and art are my favorite things," she said.

They have attended all the programs this school year. Kiefer usually isn't all that excited about the prospect "until he gets here," Mecham said. "He wants to watch Scooby Doo.'"

Often they display their work side-by-side at home. Mecham likes the program's attitude toward art.

"We are allowed to be ourselves. It's very free-form," she said. "In school they're all doing the same thing."

Chrissy McMullin, an art and music education major at Southeast, was helping the children with their projects. No such weekend art class was offered when McMullin was in grade school but she had art twice a week in school. She was a good student in science and math but was more attracted to art, she said.

"In art, there really isn't a wrong answer as long as you are creative."

Amanda Berry, a seventh-grader at St. Paul Lutheran School in Jackson, was making a dragon along with her younger sister, Natalie, and their brother Nathan, a North Elementary kindergartner.

Amanda had already gone sledding earlier in the day. "It's just something else to do," she said.

She has been coming to the Cultural Kids programs for the past three or four years. This is her last year because of the program's 12-year-old age limit.

Two Cultural Kids programs will be taught in February. The first on Feb. 19 is titled "You Ought to be in Pictures." Children will make a movie poster starring themselves.

The second program is titled "The Nature of Plants" and will give children an opportunity to make a botanical Mardi Gras mask.

All Cultural Kids programs are on a Saturday from 2-3:30 p.m. The site is Franklin School. Registration with the Arts Council is required.