Chinese New Year

At the beginning of the month we read two books in class to start off our Chinese New Year unit.





The class learned about Chinese New Years traditions and compared them to American New Years traditions. One of the activities that the kids really enjoyed was finding out what animal they are on the Chinese calendar. However, the most popular activity of all was learning how to use chopsticks. I made a run to my local Asian supermarket the week before and bought each of the kids a pair of chopsticks. We watched a tutorial on how to use chopsticks which was quite helpful for the kids. Following the tutorial I gave each one of them an orange and a cup of rice. Both foods are Chinese New Year symbols for wealth and prosperity. Then they attempted to use their chopsticks to eat their oranges and a cup of rice. Afterwards we voted, tallied, and then graphed who was able to successfully eat with chopsticks.



 

 

Below are some of the videos that we watched to learn more about Chinese New Years. (I promised the kids I would post these so that those who were allowed on the blog could watch the videos.)