Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year started on the 10th and lasts for fifteen days, so I thought the kids would enjoy learning about Chinese New Year as well as some customs and traditions. One of the first activities we did was learn (or in most of the kids' cases, try to learn) how to use chopsticks. We watched a tutorial on YouTube that was helpful for some, but not so helpful for others like the poor little frustrated first grade boy in this picture. (Too funny!)

We also watched professional lion and dragon dancers compete. The kids and I were absolutely amazed at the skills of these dancers. We made red paper lanterns and hung them up along our windows. The kids used their senses to describe a fortune cookie. I made white steamed rice for the kids, and we took tally marks and filled out a bar graph to show the results of who did and didn't like to eat rice.

See the video below to view footage of the most popular activity during our Chinese New Year unit - the kids took turns ordering food and drinks as well taking orders as a waiter/waitress using our local Chinese restaurant's menus. The restaurant not only provided us with menus, they were kind enough to also donate fortune cookies and chopsticks. Thank you, China Wok!



I did promise the class that I would share a few of the YouTube videos that we watched in class to for this unit. Here they are.





I used activities from these units that can be purchased over at teacherspayteachers.com: