Fun Ideas for Chinese New Year Unit?

[Stacey in NY]

I am putting together a little unit study for my boys on the Chinese New Year. I have a few books and a couple of crafts. Does anyone know of a good website to check out, or any other good ideas?

[Peek a Boo]

I do!!!

Our Tiger Den is presenting Chinese NY at the next Pack Meeting.
I didn't save too many links, just downloaded stuff I liked. i'll start attaching them in following messages.

One thing I noticed is that you have to be a bit more precise in figuring out which animal you are: If your birthday falls in jan/Feb, you need to look at each specific year to find out if you really are a specific zodiac sign.

I bought a Chinese NY candy dish, fortune cookies, and some red envelopes at an Oriental market. We'll be cutting tangram puzzles to put in them instead of coins :-)
Enchanted Learning has a nice booklet and activities too.

gimme a few seconds....


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Traditional Chinese New Year Rhyme

You'll find whenever the New Year comes
The Kitchen God will want some plums.
The girls will want some flowers new;
The boys will want firecrackers, too.
A new felt cap will please papa
And a sugar cake for dear mama.


---------------------


http://www.origami-resource-center.com/chinese-zodiac.html

======================

http://www.silkysteps.com/family.cfm/auid/46/Spindle-Spider/Colouring-Pictures/Chinese-Zodiac
cutesy coloring pages

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[Peek a Boo]

here's a few:

[Peek a Boo]

here's a few more -- I couldn't upload some of them, so if you wanna email me I'll send you what else i found snooping around online :-)

webnotions@yahoo.com

[melissel]

Excellent thread, thank you! I'm looking forward to this unit--it fits right in with our FIAR unit on Ping and our study of China for geography.

[Peek a Boo]

our den made paper lanterns a couple weeks ago; I'm putting together a "lift the flap" big board to display. I'm hoping we can create a simple dragon out of a cardboard box and red plastic tablecloth for the boys to "dance" through the audience with. That's still a "hope for" tho, lol.

There's another simple dragon craft that I really liked -- it was an accordion [2-strips of paper] folded body and simple paper head. I'll keep trying to find it. i downloaded the pics of the craft but didn't save the site!


you'll get a lot of neat printables if you do a google image search for chinese new year.

good luck!

[KAR120C]

I am putting together a little unit study for my boys on the Chinese New Year. I have a few books and a couple of crafts. Does anyone know of a good website to check out, or any other good ideas?
Every year we go to a local Chinese restaurant that has a celebration with lion dancers. It's a TON of fun, and really extra-memorable for the kids. You could ask around or call some local restaurants to see if anyone around you had something similar going on...

[Peek a Boo]

http://www.kiddyhouse.com/CNY/

[Pster]

What is the date of Chinese New Year this year?

[ack25]

Melissel, there is a restaurant near you that does a Chinese New Year presentation and celebration for scouts each year. They often have multiple troups and each person that participates pays for themselves. I would call them and find out info to see if you can go too as the restaurant is not affiliated with scouts. The presentation last year was awesome. They had a dragon dance, the kids made dumplings, the owners discussed traditions and taught the kids some Chinese greetings....
For the rest of you, check out the websites of local scouting councils to see what is planned. If a local establishment is named, contact the establishment! It is worth a try. My other suggestion would be to brave a trip into your local city's Chinatown.

[Peek a Boo]

Feb 6th is the first day.
Year of the Rat :-)

It's a 15-day celebration. The last day is the Lantern Festival.

[Peek a Boo]

the *7th* !!!! sorry--

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

I have seen a few sites give conflicting dates. I'll stick w/ wikipedia :-)

here's another:

http://www.chinapage.com/newyear.html

[Stacey in NY]

Thank you all for the great ideas! I get a little down this time of year, the school days seem to drag on, so I thought a fun unit study might bring a little needed zip. I am getting excited just planning it, and my boys were very excited when I discussed it with them.:) In case anyone is interested I found some nice crafts at Oriental Trading for the Chinese New Year.
Thanks again.

[Peek a Boo]

I found the easy dragon craft --it's way cooler than most of the other ones out there :-)

http://topmarks.co.uk/chinesenewyear/chinesedragon.aspx

have fun!