Year of the Rabbit: February 3rd

Are "rabbits" the happiest. gentlest of the zodiac signs?
Are crafts for the "Year of the Rabbit" the most adorable?

Rabbit Crafts
Preschool & up:
DLTK has 3 different "toilet paper roll" rabbits for ages 3 and up:

• Rabbit (Easter) Toilet Paper Roll Craft
• Rabbit TP Roll Craft #2
• Rabbit TP Roll Craft #3

DLTK Paper Bunny basket/decoration

Coloring Pages

• Child Book always has something: www.childbook.com (Thanks Ray!)
  
• Rabbit Coloring Pages
• (interactive/online) Chinese New Year Coloring Pages from Apples4theTeacher: Get out your interactive crayon and color these symbols of Chinese New Year, including: Year of the Rabbit, map of China, and flag of China. Color pages are printable and suitable for framing.

Elementary crafts

• Stand up Bunny (ages 4-9)
• Paper Simple Cute Rabbit
• This refrigerator magnet bunnny is supposed to be easy enough for those who don't crochet to crochet!
• Bead & wire bunny charm
• Beaded safety pin crafts (hardest part can be finding pins without the circle crimp in the middle):
  
  • Rabbit face pin
  • Bunny Safety Pin craft

at least middle school?
how about some fun kirgami? Rabbit driving
cut paper: Rabbit with carrot

Advanced crafting:

• 3D origami: ballerina bunny
• do you have time & patience for quilling, a craft that started in Europe during the Renaissance: Quilling Bunny

You may also want to see - and share with your students/children what expert papercutters can do. I adore this bunny at aj panda. (Reminded me of the "pulling turnip" song: "Ba Loubo").

Many of the crafts from other years are also applicable. Do search the site for ideas!

In the schools - 2007

Lots of lunar calendars going to school . . .

Laurie's taking it in for some first graders. Cathy's doing both her boys' classes! Pat took the calendar, a book & a craft in. Beth's using the calendar and coloring pages. Martha's talking to 5th graders. Linda's going in for her 5th year. Jean's a teacher and she'll have 6th and 7th graders make up their own calendar system.

This year, I'm celebrating Chinese New Year with a homeschoolers from kindergarten to 6th grade.
They'll have craft stations for: Paperfolding Pigs, Chun (spring) paper cut, making lanterns, Chinese double knot, and finger counting. (Some of the older students are running the stations!) We'll have a discussion of holidays in general (food, family gathering, ...) before learning about the lunar calendar and Chinese New Year. After a New Year's feast of noodles and jiaozi, some students will be putting on a play based on Eric Kimmel's The Rooster's Antlers. Then I'll teach some Mandarin songs and we'll close with a lantern parade.

Stephanie plans to talk about Chinese New Year and the lunar calendar to a group of 1st and 2nd year olds. Then the plan is to darken the room and try to show how the phases of the moon are created with some balls and a flashlight!

Charlie is going in again this year - Last year the kids loved it, especially the panda project and trying to eat popcorn with chopsticks. We talk about China a little in addition to the New Year's celebration. We'll show portions of 2 videos, sing the Ni Hao song, and read a children's book titled, My First Chinese New Year. We'll also teach them to count to 10 in Chinese.

I am sure that Beth is going in again but I don't know her specific plans.

Crafts for Upper Elementary

Chinese dragons.  Have them compare & contrast Eastern & Western dragons and draw them or do dragon origami. To help you, look at Eastern dragons and learn about dragons in general:
http://cny.blogspot.com/2005/01/bit-on-dragons.html

Origami covers lots of skills:(advanced)direction following, math: symmetry, geometric figures, ...  Check out my Dog & Dragon, or Paperfold Pig origami. (If you think following directions is 'too easy' try having one child describe what to do and another attempt it.)

Make lanterns from "hong bao" envelopes - or any red rectangles.  Ideas at:
Chinese Lantern Handicrafts for kids or my discussion of Hong Bao Lanterns.

Chinese knots.  Use what is called "rat-tail", it is smooth and easy to use but stiff enough to hold a shape.  You can show them knots - or if you have a bit of time, you can make the basic knot and have them "trace" it with a second thread.  (I actually find it easier to tie the "double coin knot" myself than to trace it but it does take a while to figure out how to explain it!) For a diagram of 4 basic knots:
http://www.knottingartist.com/basic-4.html

Have them try some Chinese Paper Cutting - and show them the possibilities.  Chinese Papercuts includes a list of samples that you can see online.  You may also want to read the story behind papercuts or a paper cut lesson plan for 5th & 6th graders and their example paper cuts. Paper Cuttings talks about the histiry of this art and describes the various forms with a few pictures. Chinese Paper Cuts divides the art into three categories.

Have them try Chinese Calligraphy: Chinese New Year decorations are a great excuse. Or find out what a Chinese Chun Lian (New Year's Couplet) is and have them try their hand at some. If that is too much, try one character, fu (luck) (when posted upside-down is "luck comes"). Care2 Greeting cards takes about it toward the end of their Chinese New Year page, and they have a "Fu" e-card that (yes) shows the stroke order, and then turns it upside-down for you.  Or read more on Chinese writing or Chinese Calligraphy in general

Chinese New Year's Greetings (characters) to Color: Decorate your room with Chinese New Year greetings from Childbook.com. Students can color these jpg images for the classroom or bring them home for friends and family. (Stroke order is not given.)

Happy New Year
Truth
Good Fortune/Prosperity
Peace

or, really Write Chinese: Have students become acquainted with Chinese Calligraphy and Chinese ideograms or characters. (Please tell them about stroke order. In fact write a character following the stroke order and then in some other order and see if the students find that one just looks right, one more appealing.)

Not a craft - have them make/fold their own spring rolls, or wonton.  You may want to take them home to cook & then run them back - depending on what facilites your school has.  I bet you could fry the spring rolls in an electric fry pan but check with your first that it does get hot enough.

Not a craft - but focus on the lantern festival instead of Chinese New Year.  Have them try to solve traditional lantern festival riddles (in English), or make their own.

Children's CNY Crafts and Activities

Children's CNY Crafts and Activities

While these activities are split roughly into two groups, activities can be adapted for any age range. (Older students can do research to present themselves, more complex crafts just for upper elementary, or if the school has multiple grades and you start early older students can use any of these activities to set up stations for the younger ones.)

Preschool - ~3rd Grade

PBSkids online game to Countdown to the New Year (some require a Flash Plug-In)

Coloring Pages

Dragon Dance Coloring Page
Chinese New Year Lion Dance Coloring Page
CNY Boy in Traditional CostumeZodiac Animals

Or, see a list of just Coloring Pages.

Paper Lanterns
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/lantern1.html
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/chinese_lantern_sheet.htm
http://lhs1701.0catch.com/clankids.htm

CNY Word Search: http://www.cstone.net/~bry-back/actpag126.html

Dragon or Lion Masks:The Lion Dance is performed during the Lantern Festival with performers wearing Lion Masks at the end of Chinese New Year. Lions are believed to bring good luck and scare away evil spirits. Have your students make lion masks —scary, cute, or funny—to help them celebrate. Or, make their own dragon puppets or a mask for a parade or for decorating the room.

http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/dragon.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear/lion/
Make a Dragon (html file)
Parade Dragon Puppet (html file)
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/chindragonhard.html (html file)

Read about it: I like Enchanted Learning's books – it seems worth subscribing just to get these. In 2006, the price was $20 for a year.

For early readers

For fluent readers

More craft ideas:
http://www.web-holidays.com/chinesenewyear/crafts/default.htm

More for Upper Elementary grade levels

Chinese New Year's Greetings (characters) to Color: Decorate your room with Chinese New Year greetings from Childbook.com. Students can color these jpg images for the classroom or bring them home for friends and family. (Stroke order is not given.)

Happy New Year
Truth
Good Fortune/Prosperity
Peace

(General) New Year Quiz (recommended for grades 6 – 8) :New Year Celebrations Around the World (PDF file) and New Year Celebrations Around the World Answer Key (PDF file)

Red Gift Envelopes: It's traditional in China to give gifts of money in red envelopes at New Year's. Have your students make their own Chinese Gift Packet. Rather than money, have them write good luck wishes to send.

Firecracker, Firecracker! Make “firecrackers” out of rolled cardboard tubes to simulate Chinese New Year's Firecrackers.

Paper mache Dragon Head

Crossword Puzzle: Eduplace.com has a Happy New Year (PDF file) puzzle and Happy New Year Answer Key (PDF file).

Chinese Zodiac Word Finds (from eduplace.com):

Chinese Zodiac (PDF file)

Chinese Zodiac Answer Key (PDF file)

Write Chinese: Have students become acquainted with Chinese Calligraphy and Chinese ideograms or characters. (Please tell them about stroke order. In fact write a character following the stroke order and then in some other order and see if the students find that one just looks right, one more appealing.)

Hong bao Lanterns for the 15th day

Lantern Festival is the 15th day of the Chinese New Year celebrations. This full moon marks the end of Chinese New Year festivities. Usually preparations for lantern Festival are made on the 14th day.

Consider making your own lantern. Animal shapes are popular. You can always have the children slit construction paper, roll it and make a classic cylinder -- or have them make a small one from a red hong bao envelope.

Here are more interesting lanterns from those red envelopes. There is a daily limit on the site, but if it is reached, just try the next day - earlier in the day. You may be able to leave the site up in your browser and just press "refresh" in the morning... Once you have seen what has been done, maybe you will also be inspired to make your own. Keep in mind that the dimensions on the envelopes vary considerably. You can make the same design with different envelopes and get a different look -- or you may find that the directions suggest using 5 envelopes but 4 or 6 work better for you.

Honolulu's Chinatown has more on the history and use of lanterns.

Enjoy!

Chinese New Year Ideas for school

The more notice you can give your child's teacher, the better. If there are other parents of Asian descent or parents of Asians in the class, it would be nice to coordinate. The Chinese are not the only ones to celebrate the lunar New Year.
Reading a book, wearing silk, and bringing in food are the easiest for all ages.

For all classes, but especially for the youngest:
Please remember allergies, especially for the youngest, and be sure to ask the teacher about them. Some 3 year olds have not been exposed to berries, nuts, peanuts, or shellfish and might not even know if they are allergic yet. For preschool, I have done long life noodles with just a bit of oil so they do not stick, and brown sauce (sesame paste and no peanut butter), grated carrots and grated cucumbers on the side. Do show chopsticks even if you are not comfortable using them to serve. I have also bought baozi (the steamed buns), and cut them into 2 or 4 pieces.

A lantern parade or a dragon dance is great fun. One piece of construction paper with slits can easily make a lantern. I made dragon heads one year by turning brown paper bags inside out and decorating them – and stapling on 2 yards of fabric x 22 inches. The handles on the bag really helped them keep the heads on. Most fabric is 45 inches wide so it came to a yard each. Take some music if you can. If everyone can have a bell, triangle or noisemaker that is best. Some preschoolers will not go in/under the dragon. This is fun, not just for preschool although you may need to get a real dragon head for elementary students. Bringing a silk vest or dress that they can touch or try on is fun.

Or each child can make a "personal" dragon. There are several patterns online, including:
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/chindragonhard.html

If the classroom can be decorated that helps a lot. Anything you can leave for the children to look at is wonderful. Perhaps a tray with chopsticks and popcorn. Perhaps two handleless tea cups and something they can pour back and forth, like rice?

I have a friend who just walks into the classroom and says "ni hao" and walks out waving and saying "zai jian" and she repeats it until the children are speaking to/with her. I have walked into a classroom and just asked what day it is, and pretended I must be weeks late when the teacher said January (or February) -- since I was to come in the the first day of the New Year. That can lead to a discussion of the lunar calendar or the holiday.

More for Lower Elementary Classes:
I still usually bring food, some decorations, and wear a silk vest. Background music is still nice to have. What you do depends in part on what you are comfortable with and what you have already done with the class. As well as, of course, how much itme the teacher will give you.

If you have not discussed the lunar calendar, that is worthwhile. For more ideas on that you can also see my Autumn Moon Festival thoughts.

With elementary students, different years I have:

• Told the tale of Nian; spoken of new clothes, being with family, and food – with pictures of each, and gave out hong bao (real Chinese money, 10 or 20 fen each!)


• Discussed lantern festival (the 15th day of the first lunar month) and left lanterns each with a riddle on it (be sure to give the answers to the teacher).


• Done a simple Chinese writing lesson. I showed them words that were still similar to the pictures (person, big, fire, mouth, mountain). [Please only do this if you are comfortable, and preferably know the stroke order.] For “homework” they had to figure out how to say “volcano” – fire mountain.


• Made double coin knots of red rattail, and took a longer pieces of gold and maroon rattail so they could trace the knot. They had the option of hotgluing a pinback to the knot when done. We needed about 1 adult for each 5 kids for this. Make sure it is a class that has good fine motor control and can concentrate!


• Taught the children how to count to ten and showed them finger counting as well. You can teach yourself the Mandarin at
  http://hua.umf.maine.edu/Chinese/games/numbers/chinese/one.html Once they can count to 7, you can teach them days of the week. If they can count to 12, you can say months. If they can count to 12, they can count to 99!
  
  Learning finger counting is a bit harder. I do not know the ancient system I found (although it reminds me of an Indian system that I have heard of) at:
  http://www.tooter4kids.com/china/ChinaTalk_Chinese_Money_and_Counting.htm
  What I know -- and what I saw in mainland China this summer is much closer to this:
  http://www.laputanlogic.com/articles/2004/05/11-0001.html
  (except 9 is a bit different and for 10, I make it with one hand...

Enjoy!