The Franklin Dragon Puppet was created in the spring of 2018 by about 120 art students. Every art class from 6th grade to 8th grade at Franklin participated in the project over 4 weeks with resident artist Christopher Lutter-Gardella. Funding was provided by COMPAS and The Gullickson Family Foundation. Students learned how to work in collaboration with each other from design concept to final performance. The dragon is also made of about 90% recycled materials, mainly plastic. Part of the project was to talk about and examine how plastics are damaging our earth, especially to our oceans. As an art educator, I wanted to show our students how artists can reuse and repurpose materials to not only save the planet but also be cost effective. It was an amazing accomplishment to see our students work together to design, engineer, construct, paint, and perform our dragon. The dragon is approximately 35 feet long and requires around 15 students to operate. For its depute performance in the auditorium, the dragon was too big to fit through the doors. We had to deconstruct and take apart some of the dragon's features. It ended up being a one-headed serpent by the time we were able to get it through the doors. Another funny fact: Each grade wanted to create their own head for the dragon! That is why our dragon has three heads! Currently, he is permenantly displayed flying overhead in our Media Center for all to see and enjoy!