Bringing in Chinese New Year
Explore the traditions and customs of Chinese New Year with these hand-picked resources
The year of the rat is nearly upon us! Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival, marks the first day of a brand new year in the Chinese calendar. The peak of the 15-day celebrations will take place on 25th January, when people traditionally celebrate with festival meals, dancing and the giving and receiving of hongbao (red money envelopes).
So why not get in the festive spirit and celebrate with your class? Here are some of our favourite Chinese New Year resources:
Resources for young learners
Chinese New Year Zodiac Animals Paper Chains
Chinese new year song music
A celebration of the Chinese new year in song. For preview see https://youtu.be/8etqkmb7Ybs
This song celebrates the year of the dragon , There is an introduction for children to happily bang on a drum alternating with a cymbal. The simple words are in illustrated PowerPoint I wrote and recorded this myself
On the premium site, I have backing tracks etc which enable you to sing the words to a different year/animal and an additional simply illustrated video. https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a-song-for-the-chinese-new-year-video-ppt-mp3s-vocals-backing-11030292
Chinese Zodiac animals and characteristics
Chinese New Year Activity Plan
I am doing a Chinese New Year day with my Rec/Year one class. This resource has the activity outline,alongside the relevant EYFS objectives.I have done it like this to help me feel more oraginsed,and am hoping to do a ‘round robin’ style day, alongside CIP. It can be adpated for other year groups as the activties are accesible to all.
Primary resources
FREE KS1 Chinese New Year Activities
The resource includes:
Colouring pages
Write your name in Chinese activity
Word search (with answers)
2 Colour by Number activities
2 Chinese New Year mystery pictures (with answers)
It is a .pdf file and is not editable. Please contact me if you want anything changing or have any suggestions.
Please see my other Chinese New Year resources:
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/chinese-new-year-zodiac-craft-and-writing-activity-11800769
https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/chinese-new-year-information-zodiac-nian-traditions-history-11800171
Year of the Rat Education Pack (Chinese New Year 2020)
This education resource is packed full of exciting ideas and activities from across the curriculum, helping you and your pupils celebrate Chinese New Year 2020 and the Year of the Rat.
Play the sound files and practice saying the names of different Chinese festivals and greetings in Mandarin. Read a traditional story about a pair of ambitious rat parents trying to find a husband for their daughter. Get creative making rat finger puppets, Tangram puzzles and steamed rice dumplings. Learn together about Tomb Sweeping Day, the Spring, Moon and Dragon Boat Festivals and read letters from Chinese children about how they celebrate with their friends and families.
This resource is suitable for primary years and adaptable for early secondary years and older.
We’re always thrilled to see photos and videos of you using resources in your school. Share and tag us on our new British Council Schools facebook and twitter social channels using hashtag #YearOfTheRat
Instructions to use the PDF and activate the sound files: download and save the PDF to your computer. Open the PDF and select ‘Preferences’ from the ‘Edit’ menu. Select ‘3D and MultiMedia Options’ and tick the box ‘Enable playing of 3D content’ followed by ‘OK’. In some browsers a yellow bar at the top of the PDF page will also display providing two options: select option ‘Trust this document always’.**
CHINESE NEW YEAR 2020 games, crafts, activities- Year of the Rat
Chinese New Year
Games, activities and crafts
The Year of the Rat-2020
A set of new activities for celebrating Chinese New Year
The pack includes:
Mini information book- A5 sized colouring and information books for the children to learn about Chinese New Year
Classroom activity- Hide the word cards around the classroom or outside are and the children can find the matching pictures and write the word on their sheet- plus blank cards so the children can search for HFW words or letters/ numbers
Comparisons sheet- write or draw about their own new year celebrations and the celebrations for Chinese New Year
First reader book- An easy to read book for the children to colour and make
Make the sentences- Three sheets to cut and reassamble the sentences about Chinese New Year
Make fans- Various templates to make a fan and write about Chinese New Year
Bingo- A picture bingo game to make and play
Colouring- Colouring pictures
Colouring posters- Chinese New Year posters to colour
Activity worksheets- various worksheets to label the pictures, write about celebrations, write facts about Chinese New Year and cut and stick the beginning and end of sentences
Make a hat- 2 different 3D hats to make and colour
Board game- Collect the coins for your lucky money envelope as you move around the board
Make a lantern- practice cutting skills with this cut and stick Chinese lantern
Matching pairs- A colourful matching pairs game to make and play
Count and match- Count the pictures up to 10 and match to the numbered piece of jigsaw
Number activity sheets- Dot to dots and colour by number sheets
Map sheet- Find and colour China on a map of the world and colour the flag of China
Acrostic poems- 2 acrostic poems of lantern templates- CHINA and NEW YEAR
Chinese new year dragon fraction (colour half)
Secondary resources
Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) – QAR themed literacy activities
Question Answer Relationship (QAR) is a great technique for encouraging and improving reading comprehension with students. http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/question_answer_relationship
The resource includes 11 questions (answers included) for students to answer based on Spring Festival fact files (access to the internet is required).
This resource has been thoroughly designed so no extra prep or specialised ability is needed! It can help form a standalone literacy lesson or can be left as a cover lesson. The activities should last between 30 minutes.
Can be easily adapted to suit other lessons you may have already planned.
This lesson should be accessible to years 7-8.
Activities are differentiated by the QAR levels
Please rate if you enjoyed! See my other Chinese New Year resource here https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/chinese-new-year-themed-literacy-and-web-based-activities-11200018
Click on my display name to see my other excellent resources.
8 x Chinese New Year Starter Activities Keywords Wordsearch Crossword Countries Culture
1 x Definitions Match-up cut and stick sheet
1 x Crossword
1 x Factsheet
1 x Missing words cloze activity
1 x Anagram Sheet
1 x Alphabet Brainstorm Analyser
1 x IDEA (Identify, Describe, Explain, Analyse) Analyser
on the theme of 'Chinese New Year'.
Powerpoint so can be used on the board or printed as a worksheet.
Includes space for students to explain the keywords and suggested extension activities. Can take 10 minutes or an hour, depending on which activities the students complete.
Ideal for the start of a lesson, a quick filler, a homework, part of a cover lesson or as a plenary on the board with a whiteboard pen.
The idea behind these is to get students to become more literate and think independently about the words that could be used to describe the topic being taught. The repetition of the word over and over as they look for the word is useful in remembering the terms. Often the students will pick up on things that you would not normally expect!
Chinese New Year vocabulary
