In school with Beth

Beth runs a nice blog on Cambodia & Cambodian culture. "Celebrating Chinese New Year with Skype, Flickr, Stickers and Paper" is what she did one year in her daughter's classroom.

She has her lesson plan, Fu for good luck, a song, and a set of handouts. (Pages 4 & 13 are specific to the Year of the Dog, but even those pages will be 'good' again in 2018.)

Cambodian New Year

There is more variation in "new year" celebrations in Asia than one might at first expect. In Cambodia, it is celebrated in April!

Introduction: Cambodian New Year by Laurie Fenton
Cambodian New Year Talk in School by Laurie Fenton
Celebrating Cambodian New Year (K-2)
Wikipedia on Cambodian New Year

Talking to teachers

It may not be too early to mention to your child(or children)'s teacher(s) that you are interested in doing something for Chinese New Year. The next one is February 18, 2007 and quite close to Valentine's Day. While it is nice that the room might still be red, not everyone can handle two celebrations in their classrtoom so close together. Good thing that Chinese New year is two weeks long!

Maybe you will just happen to send in a special treat for them on October 6, 2006 for Mid-Autumn Festival to get them interested in our festivals. . . even if you are not going in for that this year.

It's months away

With this weather and back-to-school right around the corner for those of us in North America who have not started yet, it may be hard to think about Chinese New Year. However, you may want to keep it in mind if you are planning on doing something for Mid-Autumn Festival. That is October 6th, 2006.