Preschool Project: Chinese New Year
Preschool Chinese New Year Projects
Many years ago, my husband and I journeyed to China. Twice, actually. We were able to hike the great wall, stroll through the forbidden city, and wonder at the temple of heaven. It is a truly a remarkable country and we had a blast immersing ourselves in their culture. It is a goal of mine to expose my children to the beauty and differences the world has to offer. Traveling has humbled me in my tracks and has given me a global appreciation that I hope to show my children. But, I will not be traveling out of the country anytime soon with a toddler! In the meantime, it is fun to celebrate cultural holidays and use it as an excuse to introduce new traditions, foods, music, and crafts to my little ones. With Chinese New Year tomorrow, here are some fun and easy ways to introduce the country of China to your young children:
Chinese Rattle Drum
Supplies Needed:
1. round wooden dowel, pencil, or something similar. We used a pencil.
2. 2 balloons
3. 4 Larger beads
4. String
5. Two mason jar lid rings
6. Hot glue
Instructions:
1. Cut the tip of the balloons off
2. Pull 1 balloon over 1 mason jar ring & repeat
3. Knot 2 beads on each side of the string
4. Hot glue the center of the string on the inside of one of the balloon rings (adult only)
5. Then, Hot glue the pencil on the inside of that same ring (adult only)
6. Finally, hot glue the other side together (adult only)
7. Once it cools, you have yourself a fun, traditional, rattle drum!
Fan
Supplies needed:
1. Popsicle sticks, or cardboard cut into Popsicle sized sticks
2. Construction paper or card-stock
3. Crayons, markers, stamps (anything you would like to use to decorate the paper
4. Painters tape
Instructions:
1. Fold half an inch into an according type of style (fold down, flip, fold down, flip etc.)
2. Once the paper is completely folded, save about an inch and half on the bottom as a handle
3. Tape the handle together with painters’ tape
4. Glue the Popsicle sticks or cardboard on the sides of the fan
Both crafts are suitable for preschool age and up. They are both super easy and very popular. While we worked on our crafts, I had traditional Chinese music playing in the background (courtesy, Alexa!)
More Ways to Explore China
In addition to the fun crafts, we rented some books about Chinese New Year, China, and Giant Pandas from the library. My daughter loves panda bears, so she was very excited to learn where they live, what they eat, and what they look like as cubs. We looked at our globe to find out where China is located and how far away it is from our own country. Next, we compared our flag to their flag. We looked to see if there were any similarities (stars) and what the differences were. Lastly, we topped it off with a Chinese dinner filled with wanton soup, shrimp balls, and bok choy! We had a great time on our China “trip” with the kids.
