BEYE Discovery: Creatures of Myth: Dragons

Post Contributed by Jocelyne Adkins, Program Director

This week we were eager to delve into the depths of our imaginations, as so many have done centuries before us, to explore some absolutely fantastic mythical creatures. Each day we will focus our attention on a different creature, beginning with dragons, then unicorns, fairies, and mermaids/mermen.

Dexter's dragon with jewels

To begin our exploration of dragons, we asked students to describe typical dragon characteristics and where we find them in popular media today. We wished to convey that not all dragons are fierce and to illuminate this point, we read "How Droofus the Dragon Lost His Head", written and illustrated by Bill Peet. After the story, we discussed how dragons can be portrayed quite differently and flipped through the illustrations in Jackie Morris' picture book "Tell Me a Dragon", beautifully rendered with dragons from the most delicate to the most fierce, to those that ride in the sky or swim in the sea.

Leila

For the project, we encouraged students to create dragons from their own imagination, rather than focusing on a popularized representation. We asked students to consider where their dragon would live, what size would it be and what would it look like? To create their dragons, students used "Model Magic", feathers, faux gems and beads. We also provided small tissue boxes for the students to transform into dragon lairs, castles, caves and many other places for their dragon to reside. We enjoyed watching the evolution of each dragon as the students worked through their ideas. The end results were unique, colorful and very decorative: these dragons definitely know how to stand out in a crowd! Well done students : )